Triad
by Heliotropic
Summary: In which Naruto makes the decision to follow Sasuke, and accidentally takes over Sound in the process. No pairings. This story is free to a good home.
1. Prologue

Prologue: An Interesting Idea

Sitting alone on the bridge where Team Seven used to meet, Uzumaki Naruto glared helplessly at his hands. Sasuke was gone. _Sasuke was gone! _He had failed Sakura, failed the Hokage, but more importantly he had failed Sasuke himself.

He had fought, and fought hard to bring the bastard back. He had tried his very best, and it hadn't been good enough. Sasuke was his best friend, no matter how stupid and antisocial he was. Why didn't the bastard get it? He could get stronger in Konoha than he could under Oorchimaru's command. Hadn't Konoha trained the snake-bastard? And Tsunade? And, now that he thought of it, Itachi himself?

And the snake-bastard was weaker than Itachi! How did Sasuke expect to beat his brother when his trainer was weaker than the one he wanted dead?! Damnit, the bastard had friends here! People who would willingly follow him straight into hell if it was needed!

Naruto blinked, and went over that thought again. _Follow him straight into hell…_

Maybe he was going about this the wrong way.

The idea would take some serious planning, and Sakura's support.

But it was possible.

First, Naruto went back to his cramped apartment, gathered paper and a pencil, and sat at his desk. He knew he couldn't take his Idea to Sakura without at least a basic plan and a list of supplies, or she would ignore his idea as just another stupid scheme.

He picked up the pencil, thought for a moment, then began to write….

Four hours later, he set the pencil down, mentally exhausted, and glanced out the window. He stared, surprised, at the sun now hung fat and low in the sky. It was almost suppertime! Where had the time gone?

Naruto sighed, stretched his back with a satisfying _pop! _and rose. Time for some ramen, he decided. As he headed out the door, he glanced at his desk and smiled.

Yes, he decided, he would go over the details and make the necessary arrangements tonight.

And tomorrow he would talk to Sakura.

That night at exactly midnight, Naruto stood, threw aside his covers and rose from the bed. He was dressed, not in black or his usual orange, but in clothes of murky grays and browns. He smirked, thinking about the clothes.

Most ninja thought black didn't show up at night. They were wrong. Standing in the shadow in black at night made you a man-shaped black spot against a washed-out palette of dull grey to the learned eye. The trick to hiding at night was to take away the human shape and learn stillness.

He eliminated the telltale shape by scrounging old rags from the trash and washing them with one newly bought piece of black fabric. By the end of a wash, it didn't matter what colour the rags started, when they came out they were non-colours: so indistinguishable that the blended in with anything.

Stillness had been harder to learn. He had watched people, animals, and birds. The closest thing to true stillness he had found among the living was a snake, hovering silently in the grass, waiting for prey. But even that had been noticeable, not because it moved too much, but because there was still a sense of life to it.

Finally, he had found his source for stillness: a stick-bug. He had never seen one, even after he had trained his eyes to pick out anything trying to hide. In fact, the only reason he found the inspirational little bug was because one had fell off a tree directly into his lap.

Now, Naruto moved (and didn't move) in a rather different way. To test out the still trick, he had walked into Konoha's busiest restaurant, right in the middle of the flow of customers, and willed himself _not there._ He had not been seen. Well, no, he had been seen, just never noticed, even in his bright orange jacket.

Instead, people's eyes simply slid past him. They had walked around him as though he were a potted plant, naturally parting the crowds on one side to rejoin immediately on the other side.

Between the no-colour cloths and the still trick, he had even been able to trick the ANBU into looking right through him. And that meant that he could travel unimpeded anywhere in Konoha, especially at night.

Which was useful when an underage person wanted to go shopping in Konoha's underground black market. And tonight he was shopping for the most valuable resource a ninja could have.

Information.

Right, enough for now. This is just the prologue, giving background info that will be important later on. More will be forthcoming within the next day. Reviews are still welcomed, though. _-Heliotropic_


	2. Chapter 1

In Which:

There is a discussion- The plan is revealed- Things get moving.

Naruto slipped silently and confidently from shadow to shadow, weaving through the complex twists of Konoha's streets with the ease of long practice.

Naruto had passed no less than four patrols on his way down the empty streets, none noticed him. The blond smirked to himself. He wondered what his friend would think of _this_: Uzumaki Naruto, number one loudest ninja, slipping undetected through the streets, so silent and _not there_ that the eyes of Konoha's elite simply slid past him.

They would be surprised, no doubt. But they would be even more surprised to find out that he was not setting up a prank, but instead delivering the last of the payment for some very important- and therefore expensive- information.

The information he had paid for (and was _still_ paying for) had come from Konoha's underground. There were three levels to Konoha: the top, in which the common, law-abiding people dwelled; the "underbelly" which contained smugglers, petty thieves, thugs for hire and other such unpleasant types. Then there was the _real_ underground. The places where information was bought and sold, the places where truly dangerous and illegal goods could be found, the places that the Hokage never had and never would know about.

The places where it was taken for granted that the name you used was not real, that you were willing to kill at the drop of a hat. Places where the currency was just as often blood, death, and other such "favors" as it was money.

Luckily, the man he had purchased information from was all right with taking coin, so even if he _was_ caught it would be perfectly legal and aboveground. Well, not quite, but still.

And the information had been worth every penny: patrol times for all of Konoha, who would work each patrol for the next eight months, where the hidden entrances into and out of the village were located, how to activate them, and where to find the best cover. With this, all he needed was an excuse not to be seen for a few days and he would be well out of reach long before anyone clued in.

And he knew what he would use as a cover, too. He just needed to work up the courage to talk to her.

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_  
Naruto is an idiot, _thought Sakura. All week, he had been sneaking furtive glances at her. This was not unusual, except for two things: one, his gaze was a strange mix of calculating and uncertain instead of adoration, and two, _he was actually being subtle_.

If the silly blond didn't say what was on his mind soon, she was going to corner him and _make_ him talk. _In fact_, she decided impulsively, _I'll do it right now!_

The whole of the Rookie Nine had taken to meeting for lunch in the middle of training ground 31, which was usually abandoned. This meant that lunches had evolved from a slightly uncomfortable silence between the two remaining members of Team Seven into a rowdy affair including sporadic attacks on various members of the group by other members of the group, yelled insults and anyone and everyone, and the use of soba as a new and deadly weapon (don't ask.). The yelling was done mostly by Ino, Kiba and herself – not Naruto, to everyone's surprise.

In fact, Naruto had been a lot quieter and more thoughtful lately, which surprised many, including Sakura. But she, unlike the others, was surprised by the fact Naruto was showing the people around him who he was, not by the fact that he actually _had_ a quiet side.

_And he's still staring at me! _Sakura growled under her breath. Enough was enough. With how chaotic things were right now, no one would notice her drag the blond off for a little chat. As Ino planted a fist into Kiba's face and another fight broke out, Sakura edged closer to Naruto, who was staring off into space.

Then, as the brawling pair became the centre of attention, she struck.

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Naruto was jarred rudely out of his thoughts by a hand over his mouth and a vice-like grip on his arm. In his surprise, he simply allowed Sakura to tow him past the tree line around the training ground and well into the forest. She took a moment to form a half-seal with her free hand, and he felt a wave of chakra wash through him. Then she released him abruptly, spun him around, and _glared_.

"Explain."

Naruto winced. She had obviously noticed something off. Damn. Okay, he hadn't planned on this, but it was as good a time to 'fess up as any. He took a deep breath.

"Okay. Just...listen. Hear me out completely, then you have full permission to rant. Are we safe?"

"Yes," Sakura answered, frowning at him. "I've set up the usual ward. No sound will escape."

"Right. Good. It's like this…. You and I both know that we would follow Sasuke anywhere he needed us to be right?"

Sakura frowned again. "Yess, Naruto, I know. But he left us behind."

"Well, yeah. _We_ know we'll do anything for the stupid bastard, but _he_ doesn't! So, I got to thinking that, well, maybe we're going about this whole thing wrong. The bastard's never going to give up on killing Itachi, and he thinks going to Sound will help him get strong enough. Maybe…we should support that. Support him. Even if he is a stuck up asshole."

Sakura ignored the insults to her teammate and crush. "What do you mean, support him? How can we do anything for him from Konoha except try to bring him back?"

Naruto raised his head and stared her straight in the eye. "We can't do anything from Konoha. So we go where we _can_ help him. To Sound. We follow our idiot _anywhere_ he needs us."

Sakura spluttered, staring incredulously at her friend. "But…but…What about the others?! And what about the Hokage?!"

"The way I see it, the other Rookies will get it. I mean, they'll be angry at first, but Shinkamaru will figure things out pretty quick, and he'll tell them. As for baa-chan …well, I suppose we just hope for the best!" He laughed sheepishly, then abruptly sobered. "Sakura…I want you with me in this, but I'll do it either was. The bastard needs people around him who will ground him or he'll loose himself."

For a long, tense moment, Sakura was quiet, thinking. Her mother was always busy now, as a nurse at the hospital. Her father had gone back on duty as a ninja three years ago. She rarely saw either of them, and all three of them around the dinner table was a rare thing. It would take them a few weeks to notice she was gone. But abandon her friends? Her village?

Finally, she broke the silence. "Alright. Show me what you've planned. I'll go."

Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and grinned. "Alright. We'll start by having a very public fight, and one of us will storm off….."

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And so, it begins. Next chapter will come within a week. It will include the words "You sanctimonious prick! Go suck eggs!" Am I the only one who finds that line ridiculous?

_-Heliotropic _


	3. Chapter 2

In Which:

There is a "fight"- The plan is started- The pervert gets a shock.

Naruto took a deep breath. Once again, the Rookie Nine were in training ground 31 eating lunch. And it was time to get things rolling.

He rose from his seat on the far side of the clearing, walking casually over to sit beside Sakura. Knowing that at least two of their friends were watching, they conversed in low, important sounding tones for several minutes. (Actually, they were talking about the weather and trying to hold back laughter. This was going to be fun…)

Sakura shifted slightly to the left, and Naruto took his queue. Abruptly, he straightened his back, allowing his face to go absolutely white, and stood. His metal lunch container clattered to the ground. The sound attracted more attention from the other Rookies.

"You…" Naruto willed his voice to quaver slightly, " How could you _say_…." He modulated the hurt and pain in his face and voice abruptly to rage. "You have no right to say that to me! You weren't there! You didn't see it! How _dare_ you!"

Sakura's face, which had been an artful blend of surprise and guilt when he started, change to match his. She too rose, facing him squarely. "How dare _you_! You aren't the only one who has seen, you idiot! I have every _right_-"

"You have no right at all! Even if you had seen what I did, it's clear you have no idea what it means!" They were nose to nose now, shouting at full volume. The other Rookies watched, wide eyed, as they went at it. None of them had seen either of the two this angry before, and certainly not at each other.

"How the hell would you know?! You're just a –" Sakura stopped speaking, her hands flying up to cover her mouth. "Naruto…"

He starred at her, face white and eyes starting to bleed to furious red. "You bitch." Naruto's voice was low and rough with emotion. "You absolute _bitch_."

"Naruto…I-I swear I didn't mean-"

"You meant every word, and you know it. _I thought you were different!"_ His voice rose almost hysterically, but he closed his eyes and visibly reigned himself in. "I'm going to leave now. Haruno, you are not going to follow me. Or talk to me. Or come _anywhere_ near me. You've made yourself clear."

He jerked away from her, turning his back on the group. Shoulders hunched, head down, he seemed very small as he walked away. The group watched in silence.

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For a long moment after Naruto had faded from view, there was silence. Sakura took a deep breath, knowing that her acting now would make or break the ploy. So she did the only thing sure to deter question about the fight: she burst into tears.

Sakura let out great, heaving sobs that shook her frame and buried her head in her hands. This spurred the rest of the Rookies into action, Ino sitting down on one side and Tenten on the other. They rubbed soothing circles on her back while Hinata brought her some water and the boys stood in awkward silence.

She let the sobs slowly diminish into pitiful sniffs, lifting her head out of her hands to reveal red-rimmed eyes and a tearstained face. Sakura didn't look at any of the others, simply staring vacantly at the ground.

Finally, Ino could take it no longer. "Sakura, what the hell was that about? I've never seen the baka so angry!"

Sakura hunched her shoulders, looking miserable. "I…. said something I really, _really_ shouldn't have. I-I just wasn't thinking, I guess. I know he hates talking about-" She stopped, shook her head, and stood. "I'd better go home."

The Rookies watched her walk away. Then Ino turned to face the others, frowning. "Does anyone else find this whole thing more than a little confusing?"

"It doesn't make sense." As one the Rookies turned to Shinkamaru, surprised. "Obvoiusly, Naruto has a secret that Sakura knows. Did you notice she cut off what she was going to say? But what could Sakura say to make Naruto that angry at her?"

"Well, let's find out what this oh-so-important secret is then! It's not like Naruto has ever been able to stand up to direct questioning. It'll be easy!" Ino exclaimed, Kiba nodding his agreement.

"I…do not believe that is a wise idea." Neji grimaced as they turned their attention to him.

"You know what he's hiding." Shinkamaru's voice was sharp, and he watched the white-eyed ninja closely.

"I have a suspicion. And if what I suspect is true, then it is a secret that I believe Naruto, among others, would literally kill to keep." Neji met the genius' eyes steadily. "Do you remember the chakra he manifested during the chunnin exams?"

Shinkamaru's eyes narrowed, then widened in realization. "It _can't_ be! _He's_ the-"

"I watched him for quite some time after I realized. He is still Naruto. It could not emulate human patterns so easily. He is the contained. And this is _not our secret to tell!_" Shinkamaru slowly sat back, considering. Finally, he nodded.

"Alright. We won't interfere." He turned his gaze on their baffled audience. "_None_ of us will. Understood?"

Kiba looked like he was about to protest, but to the whole group's surprise, Hinata interrupted.

"U-understood, Shinkamaru-san, Neji-nii-san. No snooping."

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While the other ninjas their age discussed, Naruto and Sakura met in a secluded clearing to set the second step of their plan in motion.

"Damn, Sakura! That was awesome! "

"Why, thank you Naruto. Not too shabby yourself. The red eyes were a nice touch, since both Neji and Shinkamaru suspect. It certainly was convincing." He grinned, sitting down on the soft loam.

"Thanks! Right, back to business, here's what we do next. Since our little fight has made us avoid each other like the plague, no-one should think to go to you for a least a week after they realize I'm gone, and by that time you'll be gone too."

She nodded. Naruto rose, pacing, and continued. "We'll both throw ourselves into training, apparently broken up over the fight, and disappear erratically, sometimes for hours and sometimes for days. Our schedules can overlap slightly, but not too much or the Hokage will get suspicious. Make sure you let the others find you training sometimes, and-"

"Okay, okay, stop. We've gone over the plan before, Naruto. Let's get to it." She grinned at him and he grinned back, then both disappeared into the foliage.

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Naruto stood alone beside a lake not far into Konoha forest.

After the 'fight' with his teammate, he had gone to Tsunade-baa-chan's office with an angry but tearstained visage, and asked to be taken off the mission register for a few months so he could train. He had nearly blown everything when he had heard that Ero-sennin had offered to take him out of the village to train.

Luckily, his quick thinking had blown that out of the water, and actually improved their ploy. Naruto was only sarcastic when he was truly upset and off balance, so his comment of "right, 'cause being alone with only the pervert will _really_ keep me safe!" had fit right into his persona _and_ made the Hokage reconsider.

The plan was going well. Both he and Sakura would disappear into the forest for varying length of time to train, occasionally letting others see them. And they did use that time to train. After all, they would be no use to Sasuke if they were weak.

And training was what Naruto was starting now. He had purposely picked a relatively open place and an exercise that took a lot of charka. Jiraiya had recruited most of the other Rookies to go find him, so it was the perfect way to get "caught".

The exercise was one of his own inventions, a version of the water-walking that would improve his balance, control, arm strength, and focus.

He water-walked to the centre of the lake, and then focused as much chakra into the tip of one finger as he could. He allowed a controlled amount of the chakra to escape and shaped it into a point, then put the point on the water. He then did a one-fingered handstand, and began bending and straightening his arm.

Naruto was doing one-fingered pushups with his whole body held up vertically and he was expelling a constant, focused stream of charka through his finger to stay on top of the water. It was extremely difficult, and if he lost focus for even a second, he would plunge into the water.

On his sixty-third push-up on his second arm, he became aware of his audience. He split his focus between the exercise and peering at the Rookies and sannin standing on the shore. He nearly lost control when he saw their expressions: bulging eyes, slack jaws, and very clearly in shock.

Finally, he completed his one-hundredth push-up, his whole body trembling under the strain. Slowly, he lowered himself into a standing position on the water. Staggering slightly, he became aware of exactly how tired he was. His body ached more than it had after the fight with Sasuke, every limb was trembling, he was soaked in sweat, and he was almost out of chakra.

Slowly, ever so slowly, he made his way across the lake to where his friends, the Hokage, and Jiraiya were standing. Finally putting both feet on dry land was an amazing relief. His smile as he looked at the group was barely a shadow of his usual grin. "Hi, guys. What'cha doing?"

Tsunade snapped her jaw close. "Naruto…where the _hell_ did you learn that?!"

He blinked at her, his tired mind taking a moment to register the question. "Didn't learn it anywhere. S'my own invention. I do it every day. Really hard, but I'm already stronger and I have way better control. Just…really tired. M'going home."

As he shuffled away, he could hear Jiraiya's voice rise incredously. "Every day? _His own invention?!_ Jeez, Tsunade! The kid's crazy-strong already! He doesn't need _me_ to train him! If we leave him to his own devices, he'll be stronger than me in a matter of months!"

Naruto smiled to himself, and staggered his way home.

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Well, there you go. Sorry for the delay, I didn't have access to a computer. Longer than the others, I am proud to say! Review, please. _-Heliotropic_


	4. Chapter 3

In Which:

Naruto trains- Sakura studies- People are impressed.

It had been two months since the failed mission, and five weeks since Naruto had first let the others "catch" him training. He was careful to let them find him at least once every week, but just to be sure, he had varied the time between each incident so they seemed truly random. It had been two days since the Rookies and company had "caught" him, but there had been seven days between that time and the one before. He would let them see him again today. And he was going to make it _impressive_.

He knew that Sakura had taken to letting them find her making or practicing modifications of techniques that already existed. Today, he was going to take a page from her book, and start working on his idea for a modified Rasengan.

The water exercise he had invented had been truly effective: He had practiced it every day and his control was almost seven times better. On top of that, his chakra reserves had doubled and his already-insane stamina was even crazier. That meant that he no longer needed a bushin or even two hands to make the Rasengan. In fact, since last week, he had been able to make and hold one in each hand for almost an hour.

Both Jiraiya and the Hokage had taken to tagging along with the Rookies when they went to look for Naruto or Sakura, mostly to make sure they weren't doing anything stupid. Usually they appeared around noon, so he had about an hour and a half before they came to watch him train. (They knew better than to interfere- both Naruto and Sakura had blown up pretty spectacularly when anyone tried.)

So. An hour and a half to figure it out. Well, he could work with that.

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Inside Konoha library, Sakura was pouring over a book. Beside her was a rather tall stack of books she found useless and a significantly smalled stack of thinfg she found helpful. Since this was not an uncommon sight to the other Rookies, they took little notice of the books when they arrived to ask her to lunch.

If they had paid closer attention, they may have noticed the low-level genjutsu cast on those books. If they had paid closer attention, they would have found rather a lot of books on current Konoha laws.

If they had paid closer attention, they may have found a clue to the plans Sakura and Naruto were making.

Sakura accepted the lunch offer without so much a one nervous glance at the books. She was proud of this fact for the rest of the day.

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Sitting in a small taiyaki place near the Hokage's tower, the Rookie nine ( minus Naruto and obviously Sasuke) were involved in a spirited discussion of which weapon was better for long range combat: shuriken or kuani.

Within ten minutes of ordering, Jiraiya joined them along with the groups' senseis and Tsunade. A second table was dragged over and the whole group involved themselves in an energetic meal, discussion punctuated with arm gestures and loud laughter. Then Asuma, who wasn't aware of the state of affairs between Sakura and Naruto, asked a question.

"Hey, where's the blond gaki?"

There was an uncomfortable silence. Quickly falling into her assumed role, Sakura stood quickly and opened her mouth to respond.

She was cut off by a wave of chakra that had every head turned towards Konha forest.

There was a short silence, then the whole group marched out, Tsunade telling the shop owner to put the meal on her tab. As they headed towards the forest, one thought was universal.

_What has he come up with **now**?!_

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Naruto lay on his back, panting. Damn, that had been awesome!

His experiments had been mostly successful, and he could sense the others moving towards him rapidly. Until his lapse in concentration (due mostly to an encounter between a bug and his eye) it had gone practically perfectly. He grinned. The others were almost at the edge of the clearing. Time to put on a show.

Groaning softly, he staggered upright. "Once more. Once more and I'll have it." His mutter reached the ears of his audience, and the reaction was immeadiate. The regular watchers pulled the jonin senseis into the shelter of a large boulder, and turned expectant eyes on his form.

He took a deep breath, and as he expelled it, concentrated. in his hand, palm turned upwards, a Rasengan formed. From behind the boulder Naruto heard his sensei mutter a disappointed _that's it?_ The others shushed him and continued watching.

He held the technique for a second. Then, much to his audience's puzzlement, it began to shrink. For a moment it seemed like he was releasing the technique. Then they realized that the ball of swirling air was not disappearing, it was being compressed. Barely a second after the shrinking had started; the Rasengan was the size of a pinhead, a tiny spot of intense light in Naruto's hand. Then, beside it, another appeared. And another. And another.

In thirty seconds, Naruto was surrounded by dozens of pinhead Rasengans. Then, he lifted the hand he had used to make the first one, and pointed to a huge oak tree on the very far side of the lake. The tiny balls of light shot across the open water at an amazing speed. And the oak _vanished_.

The group, including Naruto andsSakura (as far apart as they could get) walked over. Naruto examined the remains of the tree, pointedly ignoring Sakura. There was nothing left. No shards of wood, no heap of ash, just a few exposed roots.

Jiraiya turned slowly to look at the blond. "Holy shit. Brat, how do you think these things up? Multiple projectile Rasengan, each smaller than a coin? What's next, a jutsu for creating food from air?" He narrowed his eyes at the sudden smirk on Naruto's face. "You're planning something. What are you up to?"

Naruto grinned at the white-haired ninja. It was so mischievous, so sly, so quintessentially _Naruto_, that the group couldn't help but smile back. "Now _that_ would be telling!"

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Naruto looked out the window of his apartment. The sky was that peculiar shade of purple-black it only aquires when its so early in the morning that its still late at night. Those few minutes that straddle the line between "really late" and "before dawn" do strange things to a person's mind. Things, while not necessarily clearer, are sharper and more focused. This was the time when the most familiar things become alien and strange.

This was the time in which things changed.

Naruto stood. He changed swiftly into his non-colour clothes, strapped on his weapons, and leaped from the window ledge to the roof of the next apartment building over. Hurdling over the rooftops at a remarkable speed, he made his way through the city to the forest completely undetected.

Settling on the bough of a tree at the edge of the clearing and lake he had trained at, Naruto pried a large piece of bark off the trunk beside him to reveal a small cavity containing his newly-created field pack. Over the course of the last few weeks, he had smuggled everything he would need for the trip to sound to this spot.

He slid the straps of the pack over his arms and settled it comfortably on his back. He checked the straps and making sure he had everything, then scanned the clearing. Finding the one small piece of cloth he had left out and then gathering some leaves, he eliminated every trace of himself from the clearing. Careful not to break a single twig or leave and tracks, he moved slowly away from Konoha. When he was a mile away, as dawn coloured the horizon he picked up speed.

His friends had seen him today, and they were now used to his erratic comings and goings, just as he and Sakura had intended. They would not expect to see him again for at least five days, so he had a good head start for when they found out he was gone. His playacting with Sakura had been effective; no-one would think to ask her where he was since they were so clearly at odds. And as soon as people started asking questions, she too would disappear.

With luck, he would be in Sound before anyone found out he was gone.

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So there we are. A bit late, but it couldn't be helped (exams are evil. Evil!) Questions, comments? Any and every review is welcome. _-Heliotropic_


	5. Chapter 4

In Which:

There is a journey- Sakura diverts attention- Naruto arrives in Sound- Oorchimaru gets a shock.

The moon shone down in strange, flickering patches that slid over the forest floor. The thick canopy of trees concealed Naruto as he darted from branch to branch, little more than a rustle of leaves signifying his presence. When he moved, you saw a shift in the shadows. When he stopped, he wasn't there at all.

Naruto knew he was being overly cautious, but it was better suspicious than dead. Three days ago, he had been a Konoha ninja. Now, thanks to Sakura's cleverness and a little research into Konoha laws, he was completely seperate. They couldn't even send ANBU after him once they found out, because, after much debate, he and Sakura had secretly emancipated themselves using an archaic law about clanless ninja.

Then, just to ensure that the Hokage would have her hands completely tied, Naruto had given some very interesting documents to give to Iruka before she too disappeared. In the thin manila folder he had handed to her at their last meeting, were documents stating his resignation from Konoha's ninja forces, a copy of his emancipation, and a written letter renouncing his position as a citizen of Konoha.

It was now completely illegal for Tsunade to send anyone after him unless a mission was issued from outside the village. Luckly, Gaara was the only one who cared enough to do so. Naruto had, much to Sakura's horror, sent a message to Gaara explaining everything. His friend would reveal nothing.

Landing high in the branches of another tree, Naruto stopped. Crouching on a sturdy bough, he examined his surroundings. _This'll do, _he thought. Without removing any of his equipment, the blond curled up on the widest part of the branch, braced his back against the trunk, and went to sleep.

Most ninjas were in the habit of making a camp when they stopped for the night. Naruto found this stupid. Why set up a camp you'll only have to spend more time taking down when you could rest much more easily in some hidden nook and just eat an energy bar in the morning? Cooking, hunting, and cleaning up simply added time to a mission, and sometimes that wasn't something a ninja could afford.

So Naruto, quite comfortable on his high branch, slept until dawn.

* * *

Sakura looked about her tiny apartment, sun shining through the window, and sighed. A week ago, she had discreetly moved her things from her parent's home to this small apartment. She wasn't sure they had noticed yet. And did it matter? They saw so little of each other that it was doubtful they would think anything of it when they did find out.

She frowned, slightly worried. Had Naruto left yet? They had agreed that Naruto wouldn't tell her when he left so she had a better chance of acting properly surprised.

Oh well. Time to add to their little ploy. Sakura stripped off her pajamas, and donned a slightly rumpled shirt that didn't hang quite right and her most comfortable pants. She brushed most, but not all the knots from her hair, and didn't touch her usual makeup.

Then she rubbed vigorously at her eyes until a glance at her mirror showed her they were red-rimmed. She lowered her head slightly, hunched her shoulders, and shuffled out the door.

Ten minutes later, she stuck her brightest smile on her face, and ran to meet the other Rookies.

* * *

Ino frowned, and exchanged glances with the surrounding Rookies. Sakura, who was giggling at Lee's latest bid to win her heart, did not notice.

Sakura's smile was painfully false, her usually immaculate appearance slightly rumpled, and her whole posture screamed unhappy. Shinkamaru, with his quick eyes and quicker mind, had noticed first. He had leaned over, whispering into Ino's ear, and from her to the others the observations slowly made their circuit.

The Rookies were worried. Something was going on.

Ino could think of only one person who could put her in this state. To test her theory, she casually asked the other girl, " Hey, Forehead-girl! Have you seen Naruto?"

Sakura's brittle smile wilted around the edges. "Ah…yes. Earlier this morning. He's probably off training by now, though."

Ino's eyes narrowed slightly, and she glanced around to see the others had drawn the same conclusions she had. Another fight. Obviously seeing their silent communication, Sakura quickly broke away from the group, calling over her shoulder, " I should probably get training myself. See you guys later!"

She walked rapidly towards the forest, and was soon gone from sight.

* * *

Light played across Naruto's face, as he basked in the sun for a moment. With a reluctant sigh, he rose and checked the straps on his gear. Grabbing an energy bar to munch as he traveled, the boy crouched, leaped, and was on his way again.

Given the direction and speed he was traveling at, Naruto estimated he would be at the gates of Sound by late afternoon. He grinned. _And, boy, are those Soundnins in for a surprise! _

Sakura had at least another two days before people started wondering where he was. Once they thought to tell Sakura that he had disappeared, she would act surprised, then cynical. She would tell the Hokage that she had expected something like this, but hadn't expected it so soon. She would tell them she had had another fight with him, and that Naruto had let slip that he wanted to leave.

Then, after she had deflected any suspicions off of herself, she would leave his documents with Iruka along with her own. Naruto sighed. That was the only part he felt truly guilty about: leaving his dear sensei behind.

Naruto had hidden a letter explaining everything and the reasons for their departure wedged under a stone on top of the Hokage monument. Eventually, they would find it. And hopefully it would be enough.

* * *

Sabuka no Gaara leaned against the wall, reading Naruto's letter for the third time. His siblings were staring curiously at him, he knew, as was most of the council of Suna and the panting messenger who had brought the missive.

Slowly, ever so slowly, a smile stretched his lips. His eyes crinkled around the corners, his smile evolving into a grin. Then, to the shock of everyone in the room, he began to snicker quietly.

"Um…brother?" Temari's voice was hesitant and slightly fearful. Even though the people had slowly grown to like and trust the more emotional Gaara that had come back from the Chunnin exams, this much emotion was completely unexpected.

"Naruto …" The affection in the insomniac's voice was clear, "He's pulled the biggest prank that Konoha will ever see." The amusement in his voice blindsided the group.

The council of elders exchanged glances, wondering what, exactly, would make this prank entertaining to even Gaara. Temari reached for the letter, which her brother readily handed over, still smiling. With Kankuro looking over her shoulder, Temari read it.

_Hey, Sandman!_

_Wanna know a secret? Well, you'd better, cause I'm telling you either way. So, you know Sasuke-bastard has gone and pulled a fast one, waltzing off with the stupid snake. (I mean, what's up with him? If he wants immortality so much, why is he wasting time with a stuck-up idiot?) Well, Sakura (the pink-haired one) and I have decided that since the bastard obviously can't take care of himself, we'd better follow him to Sound and make sure he doesn't do something stupid._

_Wait, scratch that, he will anyways. So we're following him so he doesn't do something stupid without us to point and laugh (you know, to keep from inflating his already huge ego. I swear he lived alone in that district he owns because it's the only place with enough room for his pride!)_

_So, yeah. Sakura's arranged things so that it's impossible for obaa-chan to send people after us unless there's a non-Konoha person to give them a mission. Since you're the only person outside Konoha who knows anything about me, I thought I'd explain everything (well, mostly) before they roped you in._

_Anyways, you don't need to worry about us being on opposite sides or anything, I'll make damn sure that the snake knows you and Temari and the facepainted wonder are off limits (don't ask how. You really don't want to know.)_

_Kay, well, gonna end this here (Sakura's hitting be and telling me to hurry up.) Oh! And I made some really awesome techniques! Come visit me at some point, we'll spar and show off to everyone! (You know, I'm actually glad I have the grumpy old furball in me now? Healing instantly is so nice!)_

_Anyways…Bye. _

_Your friend (and fellow kick-ass jinnchuriki),_

_Naruto. _

Temari spluttered. "Grumpy old furball? He calls his demon a _grumpy old furball?!_ No wonder you two get along! You're both _crazy_!" Gaara smirked at her.

"Says the girl who purposely makes it look like she grows pineapples in her hair." As one, the whole room gaped at him. _He made a joke! He actually made a joke!_ Was the only thought in most of their heads.

Kankuro was the first to recover. "Well…this will certainly make Konoha's war with Sound interesting. Whatcha wanna bet the blond brat ends up either driving all of Sound insane or making friends with everyone?"

Gaara glanced at the letter, then at the confused faces of the council. "Three hundred on him stopping the war before it even gets started."

* * *

Miles away from both Suna and Konoha, Uzumaki Naruto had arrived at the Village of sound. The walls were manned by no less than eight jonnins, the gates were sturdy and thick, and it was clear that no amount of sneaking would allow him into the village unnoticed.

So he went with plan B.

Stepping into the middle of the road, completely visable, Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted at the ninja.

"Yo! Let me in! I need to see Oorchimaru!"

The jonnins stared. Naruto stared back, hands planted on his hips. The jonnins considered.

On one hand, the small blond had approached completely undetected, had escaped every trap set up in the forest, and was making absolutely no effort to hide exactly how much power he had. And boy, did he have a lot. It was practically rolling off him.

On the other, if they let the little ninja in, he might actually _use_ that power.

Finally, Naruto got exasperated. "Augh! Fine! One of you people go tell either Oorchimaru or Kabuto that Uzumaki Naruto says that they signed themselves up for a three for one deal, and number two just arrived! And I'm not gonna try to take number one because he's a stubborn, stupid bastard and it'd never work anyways! Got that? Good! Now go find him!"

And with an annoyed huff, Naruto sat down in the middle of the road and waited.

* * *

The jonnin who had been persuaded to carry the blonde's message hurried towards Oorchimaru's office. He stopped for a long moment to catch his breath, and then knocked very quietly.

"Come in." Kabuto's voice. Good. That meant that the Snake summoner was in a good mood.

He took a deep breath, walked into the room, bowed, and relayed his message. "Oorchimaru-sama, there is a small blond ninja at the gates. He told us to tell you that Uzumaki Naruto says that you signed yourselves up for a three for one deal, and number two just arrived. And that he's not going to try to take number one because he's a stubborn, stupid bastard and it'd never work anyways. And then he sat down in the middle of the road." The jonnin chanced a glance towards the two.

He was met with two very surprised faces. Then Kabuto began to chuckle. "Well, Oorchimaru-sama, you have to admit he's got guts. And he is rather powerful. "

Oorchimaru's face grew thoughtful. "Hmmm…and he'd keep Sasuke-kun in line. Well, we'll see, won't we? This may be to our advantage. I wonder how he got away from Konoha without the hunter-nins dragging him back?"

"We'll find out soon, no doubt. Send him in, but make sure he has absolutely no contact with Uchida Sasuke. This will be an intriguing discussion, I believe."

The jonnin bowed, and left the room.

* * *

Back at the gate, Naruto had persuaded one of the rather bemused jonnin to come down off the wall. Currently, the two were on their third game of Xs and Os.

In the ten minutes since the other jonnin had left to take the news to their Kage, Naruto had struck up a conversation with each ninja in turn. All of them were confused. Usually, when a ninja appeared at the gates of Sound, they were either terrified or they postured to impress the guards.

Instead of doing the expected, Naruto had promptly started asking general questions about their village. In return, the ninja had found the little blond quite willing to answer any and all questions posed to him.

They now knew why Naruto had come, how he had gotten away, that he was an orphan, and that his favorite food was ramen.

The ninja playing Xs and Os with him finally asked a question Naruto was hesitant to answer. "So, how did it happen? How did your parents die?"

Naruto hesitated, wondering how much to tell them. Should he tell them about the seal? _Why not? It's not like keeping it a secret did me any good in Konoha…_Naruto thought. He took a deep breath.

"I don't know who my parents were, but they died when the Kyuubi attacked. All the villagers except for old man Ichiaru hate me too much to tell me anything anyways. See, the Kyuubi couldn't be killed, so they sealed it into a newborn baby. Me. Just my luck, too. The furball is always so _grouchy_. It can't get out, of course, but it wasn't too happy about me forcing it to give me chakra as rent."

The nins stared at him. "Rent?" one asked faintly.

"Well, yeah. It lives in my mind; so it's damn well gonna pay for the space. The upside to having the fuzzy homicidal maniac is the chakra and the fact that I can heal from pretty much anything overnight."

"Ah."

"I had it better than Gaara- he's the vessel for Shukuka- His seal was unstable, so his demon was whispering in the back of his mind, telling him to kill everyone, and between that and the fact he couldn't sleep without the demon taking over, he was pretty much as crazy as you can get. The seal's been repaired now, so he's actually pretty cool. We're friends."

Finallly, Naruto looked up at the jonnins. "You gonna run screaming or try to kill me now? 'Cause that would suck."

"No…"Said one jonnin. "No, I think you'll find that soundnin are more open-minded about that kind of thing. Most of us were missing-nins."

The others nodded in agreement. Naruto's face lit up, and he grinned. "Cool!"

Finally, the jonnin who had left to talk to Oorchimaru arrived. "Hey, brat. Oorchimaru-sama and Kabuto-san are waiting to see you."

The gate creaked open, and Naruto entered the village of Sound.

* * *

So...He's in Sound. Next chapter will include a full explanation of the plan Naruto and Sakura made, and a meeting with Sasuke. And, boy, will _he_ be suprised..._-Heliotropic _


	6. Chapter 5

In Which:

Naruto nicknames the jonins- Orochimaru and Naruto discuss Sound- Sakura gets moving.

* * *

Naruto peered around his honor guard (four of the jonins from the gate) to examine his surroundings. The five of them were striding steadily through the streets of the village, making their way towards a large circular building directly in the centre.

Sound was built with an eye to security. The central building way surrounded by eight feet of grass, with no shrubs, trees, or flowers. The first floor of the building was slightly raised; so all the windows had a good view of the bare strip while being high enough to make for an awkward jump. In a wide circle around the building were the training grounds. Around this was a wall. Then there were the administrative buildings: the ninja academy, the supply stockpiles, all the various offices, and several ninja outposts throughout. Around that was another wall, and outside it were the shops and stores, along with the homes of genin to high chunin ranked nins, and more outposts. Then another wall separated that section from the last: all the residents of normal civilians and workers.

All the walls were patrolled at all times.

The result was a well-organized village with good defenses. He was impressed, not that Naruto would ever admit it. They were now passing the last wall, heading towards one of two entrances to the round building. Naruto stopped trying to take in everything at once, and instead turned to one of the jonins. This one, he noted, had small green clips on the edge of each sleeve, and was barely discernable as female under the baggy uniform.

"Hey, Green-chan! Is Orochimaru's office or throne room or whatever underground? 'Cause there's no way all the clerks and people could all fit into only one floor."

Snickering quietly at his partner's nickname, the jonin to Naruto's left answered. "No, it's on the main floor in the very middle. Most of the clerks and people, as you put it, are in different buildings. Only the people who are directly under Orochimaru-sama are in this building."

Taking note of the white hair visible on this jonin, and the obviously male build, Naruto responded, "Neat! Think Orochimaru did it that way so he could watch those really whiny clerks huff and puff all the way here, Ghost?"

The jonin spluttered. "Ghost? Why ghost?!"

"Well, Green-chan because she's a she and had green bits on her uniform, Ghost 'cause I can see some of your hair and it's white, he-" Naruto pointed at the jonin directly in front of him, "is Edgy 'cause he twitches every time I say one of your nicknames, and the person behind me is just a bushin so I won't bother naming him." Naruto grinned at them.

The jonins stared at him. In his heart, the newly named Ghost knew that shock was going to be a common state now that the blond had arrived. Not once did any of them consider the possibility that Naruto would be refused.

It would take a stronger person than their leader to resist the force of nature Naruto had become.

* * *

Orochimaru stared pensively at the door, waiting. Should he allow Naruto-kun to stay? Was their any benefit in turning him away? How would the blond's presence affect Sound?

"Orochimaru-sama, stop brooding. You know as well as I do that a choice can't be made until he says his piece. You're just making yourself tense." The snake summoner turned towards his second in command.

"You sound as though you're already supporting his staying, Kabuto." The other man ducked his slightly, but smiled.

"Let me just say that life will be much more interesting with him around. You've had limited contact, Orochimaru-sama, but once you talk to him, you'll understand. He's…different. Interesting."

Hearing the quiet knock on his door, he sighed. "Well, we'll see, won't we? " Louder, he called to the group in the hall, "Come in."

Before the jonins could restrain him, Naruto opened the door and bounded cheerfully into the room.

"Yo! Thanks for at least hearing me out, Orochimaru. Hi, Kabuto! Haven't seen you for a while." The blond flopped down in the chair opposite Orochimaru's desk. He grinned at them. " Your jonin are really nice, although I wish Ghost would stop snickering at me. Green-chan and Edgy are nice. So, I'd best get explaining, hey? What do you want to know?"

Orochimaru blinked. Had the boy breathed once in that whole monologue? Then his words registered. Green-chan? Edgy? Ghost? The boy was giving three of his most powerful jonins ridiculous nicknames _and they didn't mind?! _He shook his head. He'd figure that out later. Right now he had a mystery to solve.

He leaned forward slightly. " I think, Naruto-kun, it would be best if you simply started at the beginning and explained everything. Otherwise, I expect we would be here until dawn tomorrow." He glanced at the jonins. "Are you comfortable with telling your tale with these three in the room?"

Naruto shrugged casually. "Eh, why not? They already know about the fuzzball, and I'm pretty sure I can trust them. Besides, it's not like anything I'm going to tell you is particularly sensitive."

The jonins took up posts around the room, and the soundnins as a whole settled in to listen.

Naruto told them everything. He told them of his and Sakura's loyalty to Sasuke, of conceiving his plan, of buying information from the underground. He told them about deciding to "fight" with Sakura to throw suspicion off of her and give her time to escape when he disappeared, of the documents that made their leaving the village completely legal so they would not be named missing-nins. He told them of slipping bast Konoha's patrols and out a hidden door into the forest, gathering his supplies, and finally arriving at the gates of their village. Orochimaru nearly choked on his own tounge when Naruto told him of playing Xs and Os with "Green-chan".

When he finally ran out of things to say, he sat back. The blond watched Orochimaru's face as he processed what Naruto had done, the fact he and Sakura had completely cut ties with their village to follow a friend.

Finally, the man nodded. "Very well, I believe that answers all my questions but one. " Orochimaru laced his fingers. "What can you offer to Sound, Naruto-kun? And what do you want in return?"

Naruto smiled genuinely at him. "What can I offer you? Other than the fact I am a powerful ninja? Well…first, I can train your ninjas in the best stealth techniques that I've ever seen. The ones that let me get within a foot of the first wall completely undetected. And even then, they only saw me when I wanted them to. I can offer you a way to fix the Konoha mess. I can guarantee you open trading with Suna, if not completely tax-free. Oh, and with me you get a really good medic-nin and genjutsu specialist, free of charge!"

The blond imitated Orochimaru's posture and position perfectly, but ruined it by grinned impishly. "Interested?"

The soundnins stared. Then, slowly, Kabuto began to laugh. " I apologize, Orochimaru-sama, but I told you so! Thing really _are_ going to be interesting around here from now on."

One of the jonins, Green-chan, snickered. Orochimaru sighed. "Alright, Naruto-kun, point made. Welcome to Sound. You are ranked chunin presently, although you can take the jonin test whenever you feel ready. We will speak of trade with Suna and your solution the Konoha mess, as you put it, tomorrow. I'll have a forehead protector and a uniform for you by then. Himoto will show you around, and you will sleep at her apartment tonight." Green-chan, now known as Himoto, nodded.

"Take him shopping for clothing, as well. No orange. Or any other eye watering shades either, Naruto-kun. The clothes you are wearing now are good for missions, but you will have to spend some time in the Village." Naruto looked down at his no-colour cloths, and grinned again. "We'll find you an apartment near Sasuke-kun's soon. Now go, get something to eat. It's past eight pm."

Naruto jumped up, chattering about ramen and new flavors, and his new watcher shuffled resignedly after him, the other jonins watching in amusement. Stretching, Kabuto nodded to the two jonins, and they left. He turned to face Orochimaru. " Interesting, isn't he? Tomorrow will be exciting."

Orochimaru sighed, faced with a sudden vision of life with Naruto in the village. Exciting was an understatement.

* * *

Back in Konoha, Sakura was doing a very good job of keeping her act up.

"He's _gone?! _As in, left the village permanently? But…" Her voice and face abruptly modulated from surprised to resigned. "I suppose I should have expected this, but I thought he'd wait at least a year…"

Both Tsunade and Shikamaru frowned sharply, but it was Neji who asked, "And why should his disappearance have been expected, Sakura?"

All the Rookies and their senseis were gathered in the Hokage's office, along with Jiraiya. The white-haired pervert had gone to Naruto's apartment to coerce the boy into accompanying him to the hot springs, and had found the apartment bare of all essentials and anything of sentimental value to Naruto. On his desk sat his Konoha headband, Tsunade's necklace, and a note that simply read:

_Sorry, obaa-chan. I have something more important than a dream to take care of._

–_Naruto, ex-Rokudaime-To-Be _

Sakura sighed. "A few days ago, I encountered Naruto just after breakfast. We…well, neither of us were in the mood to apologize, to say the least. He let slip that he was going to leave the village. I thought he meant monthes or years from now, not days. I guess I didn't really think. I was kind of distracted for the rest of the day."

"Hey! I remember! You were all crumple and sloppy-looking…" Sakura sent Ino a sour look.

"Trust you to notice my appearance and not my mood, Ino-pig…"

"_Hey!_"

Asuma let out an exasperated sigh. "Quiet, you two. Sakura, did anything you said have particular impact? According to Jiraiya-sama, it had been abandoned for days. He must have left immeadiately."

On queue, Sakura made her face pale a bit, and allowed her shoulders to slump. "I…yes, probably. He got me really angry." The guilt in her voice was clear. Asuma winced, realizing just how insensitive he had been to the girl.

Sakura stood abruptly, and faced Tsunade. "I'm going to train in the forest for a few days. I…need to think. I'll be back within four days, okay?" Tsunade studied her for a moment, and then nodded reluctantly.

"Just don't overdo it, Sakura. No new jutsus without supervision. You can't heal like Naruto can."

Sakura nodded, and left. Ten minutes later, she went to the lake where Naruto had trained so ofter, and sat beside the water, just staring over its surface. It took an hour and a half before her watchers finally left, and she waited an extra hour after that, just in case.

Then she stood, fished her travel pack out of a hollow in the roots of a tree, and followed much the same path Naruto had days before.

_Just wait_, she thought. _Naruto isn't the only one with hidden strength. I said I'd do anything for my team, and I will._

It would take the Konoha Rookies six days to realize that she hadn't lost track of time, and had disappeared. A day after that, they would find all of the documents Sakura and Naruto had left to make their stunt legal. And not an hour after they found those, they would find the letter Naruto had left on the Hokage monument, explaining everything.

* * *

There it is. Chapter the fifth. Aren't you proud of me? I even posted it before I said I would! And next chapter, Sasuke is going to find his teammates on his doorstep. I had intended to have Sasuke in this chapter, but it just wouldn't happen. Oh, well…

_-Heliotropic_


	7. Chapter 6

In Which:

Kakashi contemplates the past- Sakura arrives- Sasuke is greeted- The Konoha group find Naruto's plans.

* * *

On Team Seven's little bridge, the once-sensei stared down at the clear, swiftly moving water. Where had he gone wrong? Uchiha Sasuke, his prodigy, had been lured away by promises of power. Uzumaki Naruto had gone as well, most likely to hunt down and kill his teammate. His one remaining student, Sakura, spent maybe ten minutes in his company in the last three days.

And she and Naruto had grown strong without him. Having watched only one of Naruto's training sessions out in the woods, most of what he knew about the blond was from his friends. They talked of lightning covering his entire body, of one-fingered handstands on moving water, of frankly dangerous levels of weights on his legs. They told him that his cheerful little dead-last was as powerful as Jiraiya or Tsunade, that he had won two out of the three sparring matches Naruto and the white-haired pervert had fought.

Sakura he has seen more of. She disappeared into the woods, sometimes for days, then came back with powerful alterations on many techniques. She had revolutionized the way medical jutsus were made and used, formulating a way to heal more quickly and easier without weakening the flesh of a wound. She redesigned even the most powerful attacks, especially genjutsu, to be more effective while using less chakra. She had created, with Lee's help, a taijutsu technique just for medic-nins that was almost seven times more effective than any previously invented.

Both Sakura and Naruto were amazing ninjas, and apparently quick students from what Tsunade had been telling him. And what hand had he had in their development? He had taught them basic chakra control exercises. All his focus had been on Sasuke, and he had missed his chance.

And now he was too late to help any of them.

Sighing morosely, he turned away from the water. Maybe he should head up to the top of the Hokage monument. He remembered Naruto had always gone up there when he needed to think. He could almost hear the boy's voice, strangely sober.

"Just stand at the very edge, sensei, and spread your arms and let the wind blow away all your angry and sad thoughts and then just think. It makes stuff clearer…"

* * *

Moving swiftly through the forest, Sakura considered her options. She was maybe a minute's travel from Sound now, and the traps were set thickly throughout the forest. She hadn't let any of them catch her, of course, but there had been some close calls when her mind had wandered. She could sneak into the village, but what was the point? Knowing Naruto, the gate guards had been told to watch for her. But could she really risk it?

Eh, might as well. It was probably smarter than just showing up in Orochimaru's office. So she left the cover of the trees some six feet from the gate and walked calmly towards it. As she neared, Sakura called up to the jonin on guard.

"Hey! I'm Haruno Sakura! My teammate, Naruto, should already be in there! Can you open the gate?"

The jonin glanced at eachother, then one of them chuckled softly. "We'll let you in, girl. Naruto-kun told us you'd be here soon."

She smiled up at the one who had spoken. "So you know Naruto well?"

The jonin, now identified as female, sighed as her fellow guards laughed. "Until about three hours ago, the kid was living with me. He needed a place to stay until the apartment nearest the Uchiha's had opened up and someone had to pay for new clothes and food. I have _never_ seen someone consume that much ramen in all my life."

Sakura blinked. "The ramen bit doesn't surprise me. But Naruto shopping? That must have been _hell_. He hates shopping!" The jonin jumped off the wall and opened the gate, guiding the pink-haired girl through.

"It wasn't so bad once he realized I wasn't going to make him get things he didn't like. He's got a pretty good wardrobe now, mostly in grey and blue." Sakura gaped at the jonin, who smiled under her mask. "No bright colours whatsoever, and we trashed the atrocious orange jumper he brought with him. He doesn't need it to gain attention _here_. "

Sakura wince at the reminder of Naruto's treatment back in Konoha, and sighed. Clearly, it was different her. If Naruto was as accepted as she was beginning to suspect, she knew he would never leave Sound, not for anything. A change of subject was in order.

"So where is Naruto now?"

"Naruto-kun is at Uchiha Sasuke's apartment, waiting for the boy to return from a mission. You can join him once we have you registered with Orochimaru-sama."

* * *

Naruto stood silently, staring at the plaque on the door in front of him.

_Uchiha Sasuke_

_Chunin_

_Alpha Division_

The name of his teammate, his friend, his rival. The person he had half-expected he would only see on the other side of a battlefield. And it would be only minutes before Naruto saw him again. Sasuke always entered his house back in Konoha through a window, and Naruto thought that was probably the case here too.

He had already picked the lock and disarmed the traps. As soon as he heard movement from within the apartment, he would enter. He would see his friend again.

* * *

Uchida Sasuke sighed in relief as his apartment building came into view. He deactivated his Sharigan, and landed lightly on the wall beside his window, his feet adhering easily to the wall, just like he had been taught by Kaka- no. Now was not the time for painful memories and impossible dreams. He would never return to Konoha, his teammates probably hated him, and he would be expected to kill them if he ever found them.

They were Konoha nins, and he was not. Simple as that.

He opened the window and slid easily into his sparse, impersonal residence. Dropping his pack to the floor, he missed the click of the front door opening. He rubbed a hand tiredly over his face. It had been a long day, a long mission.

"…Sasuke?"

He froze. That voice…Sasuke turned around, saw the blond hair, saw the lunge, knew he was caught, that he wasn't fast enough to escape the blow. He tensed his muscles, waiting for the hit. It never came.

Instead, Naruto's arms pulled him into a warm, gentle hug. The blond's mouth was right beside his ear. "I missed you. _We_ missed you, bastard. We won't leave you."

A second pair of arms wrapped around both boys and pink strands of hair tickled his cheek as Sakura joined the hug. For a moment, he wasn't in Sound; he was in a graveyard in Konoha, his teammates comforting him in a moment of weakness.

He hadn't noticed the tears on his face then, either.

* * *

In Tsunade's office, Kakashi and the others read the letter he had found on top of the Hokage monument.

_Dear Everyone,_

_If you've found this, you know that me and Sakura-chan are gone. Don't worry about us, we're safe. We are going after Sasuke-bastard. He can't take care of himself, he's got no common sense, and he honestly needs us more than you guys do. By the time you find this, we'll already be in Sound, so it doesn't hurt to come clean. This is what we did:_

_We staged a few fights between us to throw suspicion off of Sakura for when I left. Then we decided on staggered schedules of disappearances into the forest so you'd get used to us being gone for days without contact to give us a head start when you started wondering where we were. We both wrote and signed documents ending our careers as Konoha ninjas and Konoha citizens so you couldn't follow us legally. Then we staged another fight, I left, and Sakura is going to deflect suspicion off of her and leg it as soon as people start asking her question._

_The documents are hidden in Iruka-sensei's unmarked assignment box. _

_Tell him I'm sorry I didn't get to say bye and that he should look in the little nook in the plaster for my headband he gave me, the other one has already been left on my bed, but it isn't the important one._

_Me and Sakura will try our best to not fight against Konoha, and I have a plan to make the war stop before anything really happens, but obaa-chan won't like it so I won't tell you. Sakura says hi and sorry for the trouble and to tell her parents everything because they won't mind anyways._

_Neji, I know you know about the fuzzball. Go ahead and tell people, obaa-chan can fill in all the holes and stuff. Shikamaru, you lazy ass, if you don't get off your ass and ask you-know-who about you-know-what, I'll tell Ino about the peanut butter incident. _

_Hinata, you'd be really cool if you stopped stuttering. You're way cooler than those idiot clansmen of yours anyways! _

_Sorry I can't fulfill my promise, baa-chan. This is more important than being Hokage ever was or will be. _

_Love you and Bye,_

_Sakura and Naruto._

_(Ps. Kakashi-sensei, stop moping and do something useful. There is nothing more pathetic than you when you're pitying yourself! And listen to Iruka-sensei, he's a lot more sensible than you are. –Sakura.) _

Ddd

Sakura sighed softly, lifting her head from Sasuke's sholder even as Naruto disentangled himself from the group hug. They had stayed twined together for several minutes, and none of them were enthusiastic about moving, but Naruto and Sakura had a story to tell.

And it was a story Sasuke needed to hear.

* * *

So. That was sappy. Ugh. Well, what can you do? It just wanted to be that way, and it foiled all my attempts to make into a chapter of substance.

Next chapter, Sasuke is mean and is promptly pranked, Naruto dances in the rain and the jinchurikki of all nine demons sit up and take notice of a strange disturbance…

Don't you love cliffies? _-Heliotropic_


	8. Chapter 7

In Which:

Sakura makes a point to Sasuke- Naruto dances in the rain- There is a Kyuubi incident.

* * *

Sasuke listened in incredulous silence as Naruto and Sakura's story slowly unfolded. Sitting on the floor of his apartment were some of Oto's most elite ninja along with the newly reformed Team Seven, all listening to the story unfold.

Although the jonins along with Kabuto had already heard the whole tale, they too were listening raptly. The joint explanation was much more detailed than what Naruto had told them in Orochimaru's office.

After almost two hours of talking, the story finally wound down. Naruto sighed, leaning back against the wall, and grinned at Sasuke. "Well, there you have it, the whole story. What'cha think?"

"You gave up your friends, your family, and your whole life as Konoha nins to follow someone who knowingly betrayed you." Sasuke's voice was flat. "You're both stupid _and _crazy."

Sakura looked at Naruto. Naruto looked at Sakura. "Would you like to do the honors, or shall I?" Naruto asked the pink-haired girl courteously. Sakura smiled pleasantly at Naruto, and leaned over.

She smiled at Sasuke and hit him across the face with all the strength she could muster. The boy's head snapped back and he went tumbling over, caught completely off guard. Sakura stood over him, and hauled him upright by his ear.

She leaned down to whisper to him, "Listen up, you arrogant sod. I may like you, I may think you're cute, but you won't be talking like that to me ever again. You think this was for you? Well, for Naruto it was. You're his precious person. My reasons are different. I came to make sure that Naruto would be safe from a traitor's foolish dreams. I missed you, and I still care about you, but some things aren't easy to forgive." She glared at him. "You left us alone. We were a _team_, Sasuke, and you left us alone."

She releases the reeling boy, and moved to sit down again beside Naruto. "What did you say, Sakura? He's even more white than usual."

She smiled sweetly at him. "I was just reminding him how grateful he should be to have friends like us."

Naruto blinked, slightly suspicious, but accepted her explanation. He sighed, stretched, and looked out the window. "Hey, it's raining!"

He bounced to his feet, completely ignoring both the jonins and his teammates to stick his head out the window. He sighed with pleasure as the rain beat down on his face, washing away the sweat and dirt accumulated during the day. A truly happy grin spread across his face.

"I'm going outside."

"What, in this? Naruto, you'll soak your new clothes!" The jonin on his right, Himoto (or Green-chan) exclaimed.

He peered down at them. Everything she had bought for him had been in varying shades of gray, made of light but resilient material. This morning she had tossed him black shorts, a tight grey shirt, and a charcoal gray sleeveless coat. He smiled at her. "Hey, if they can't stand up to a little rain, why'd you buy them for me? You chose this stuff 'cause it's durable and all. Besides, I like the rain. Who cares about getting wet?"

That said, Naruto bounced to his feet and was out the window and on the street below before any of them could really react.

* * *

Naruto launched himself off the windowsill and let himself freefall to the street below. He was very nearly bouncing as he made his way to the very centre of the cobbled road and tipped his head back to let the rain wash over him.

He sighed.

Standing in the rain like this was one of the things Naruto really, truly loved to do. It was strangely revitalizing, filling up parts of his soul he didn't know were empty, washing away his worries and fears and leaving behind only a calm confidence. It never made him feel as though he had made the right choices.

It made him feel confident in the fact that, whatever mistakes he had made, he would never be completely alone.

In his navel, behind the metal bars of a huge cage, he felt the Kyuubi stir.

**Nigen. **

_What do you want, furball?_

A growl echoed through Naruto's head, and he grinned. The fox was so easy to get riled up.

**It's raining… We have an agreement, nigen. **

_Yes, I know. Go for it! _

There was a rumble of laughter, then the demon's chakra swirled through his body. A soft light surrounded Naruto, and his chakra system opened to the foreign energy. Naruto closed his eyes and reached for the natural, clean chakra of his surroundings: the rain, the stones under his feet, the fire in the hearth of a nearby house.

Each and every raindrop held a tiny burst of fresh, healing chakra, which it fed into all it touched: plants, trees, dirt, stones. The only things it didn't feed into were people. Their chakra systems were too defined; they weren't open to the energy that constantly surrounded them. Without the fox, Naruto would have been the same.

However, a while ago, he had struck a deal with the nine-tailed demon: in return for allowing the fox to feel and see through his body, Kyuubi opened him to the only source of power that would literally never run out.

Water. More specifically, rainwater.

Chakra in every drop…Naruto's eyes flew open. Of course! He could sense _every single drop_. It only took about a minute for the rainwater to completely fill his huge chakra capacity; the rest of the energy just went sliding off. So he didn't need to be hit by the rain anymore.

And what better dodging practice was there than dancing between raindrops?

* * *

Sasuke sighed, sitting in the single chair by the table. From the window, Kabuto, Sakura, and the jonins watched Naruto stand with his head tipped upwards for just over a minute. Then, to their surprise, he began to move. It wasn't the movement that had them staring, it was the _way_ he was moving.

Eyes closed, face a mask of concentration, Naruto was moving in a smooth, fast pattern, arms and legs moving, his whole body swaying as though he was dodging thousands of projectiles at once.

Slowly, a pattern became visible to the experienced ninja. It was impossible complicated and absolutely beautiful to watch. Naruto was a small figure of gray and gold, flowing from move to move in the most complicated kata possible.

"What's he doing? How is he _doing_ that?" Kabuto's voice held something approaching awe as he addressed Sakura. Unable to tear their eyes from the boy dancing below them, the jonins nodded but didn't turn towards her.

"I have no idea, but it's _beautiful_!" Sakura watched her teammate with wide eyes. How was he doing that?!

Behind them, Sasuke stood, curious, and peered over their shoulders, and stared. The blond was…was something not quite a part of the normal world, dancing like that. He looked…ethereal. Something unreal.

Then, as they watched, Naruto's hair began to lengthen, his fingernails turning to claws, his canine teeth lengthening slightly, his ears developing points. Somehow, the daunting changes that were no doubt due to what he contained, only made him fit into this strange scene even more.

* * *

**Nigen, what are you doing?**

_I'm dancing between raindrops! Now be quiet, you're distracting me!_

A rumbling laugh from the Kyuubi, and its chakra began moving through Naruto's inner coils again.

**You'll never be fast enough the way you are…so you're just going to have to change a bit. It's about time you became a proper vessel anyways, even if you are just another nigen fool.**

_What? What're you doing, furball? I feel…_

Naruto didn't finish. He felt…stronger. Faster. More alert. The strange sense that allowed him to feel and accept the rain's chakra wasn't fading as it usually did. He didn't feel any less in control of him self, he just felt _more_.

It was exhilarating.

Naruto threw back his head and laughed. He would worry about consequences later. For now, he was going to enjoy this grudging gift from his tenant, and dance. He roared with the thunder, struck with the lightning, danced with the rain, and took no notice of the awed and frightened faces peering out of every window as he rose up into the air effortlessly.

And the Kyuubi roared and struck and danced with him.

* * *

_In a hut on the side of a mountain, an old man with a seal on his face turned, frowning, from his work to stare down towards the village of Sound._

* * *

_In the middle of a forest, a jonin lifted her Mist headband away from her face, ignoring her team, to peer towards the village of Sound._

* * *

_In the middle of the ocean, a huge eye opened slowly, and heavy waves rolled over the surface of the water as a huge head turned towards the shore and the village of Sound._

* * *

_In a cage covered with sutras, a pale boy with scales running down his bare back stopped snarling at his captors to look towards the village of Sound._

* * *

_In Lightning country, a girl of five leapt out of her bed and raced to her window to stare intently towards the village of Sound._

* * *

_In a cave in the side of a mountain, a boy lifted his face from a wolf's fur to peer out into the night, staring in the direction of the village of Sound._

* * *

_In a cell deep below the village of Snow, sightless eyes turned slowly in the direction of the village of Sound._

* * *

_In Suna, a redhead in Kage's robes felt a jolt of energy, and turned his face away from his advisors to look towards the village of Sound. _

* * *

_In the village of Sound, Naruto dance with his demon as sliver chakra dripped off his floating form. And the village watched a jinchurikki release his power._

* * *

Well, it's kind of late, and I'm not really sure about the way Sakura acted, but I think it turned out pretty well. This chapter just didn't want to get written. -_Heliotropic_


	9. Chapter 8

In Which:

Naruto meets the villagers- Gaara discovers some interesting information- Naruto prepares for a mission.

* * *

The storm had lasted for four hours before tapering off, and Naruto had not paused once in his dance with the elements.

Finally, an hour after dawn, the purple-black clouds had faded to grey, the rain was barely at a drizzle, and under the eyes of almost every inhabitant of sound Uzumaki Naruto glided slowly to a stop three meters above the ground.

Hovering in the middle of the street, Naruto looked around for the first time since that wild joy had taken hold of him. There were people everywhere. Villagers. Ninja. Shopkeepers, children, mothers, fathers, workers, genin, chunin, jonin, even Orochimaru himself.

Naruto stared at them. They stared back.

"Er…hi?"

Naruto's voice broke the tense silence, and the crowd surged forwards, shouting questions, laughing, completely unafraid.

"What's you're name?"

'Are you a ninja?"

'What were you doing?"

How did you do that?"

"Why are your eyes-"

"What's with the cla-"

"Who's the-"

"Why're-"

"What-"

"Who-"

"QUIET!" Orochimaru's voice silenced the excited crowd immediately. He walked calmly through the mass of people, easily making it to the small empty space left around the blond. "He can hardly answer your questions if you don't give him a chance to speak."

He sent an encouraging smirk to Naruto, who lost his wide-eyed surprise and took a deep breath. "Um…okay. I'm Uzumaki Naruto, I'm a chunin, and I have a demon sealed inside me. He's the reason for the…um, the incident. The furball just kinda got overexcited or something."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, embarrassed by the attention. He sent Orochimaru an obviously desperate look, which wasn't missed by the crowd. A ripple of laughter went through them at his discomfort and the fact that he was looking to _Orochimaru_ of all people for protection.

"Um…" Naruto was growing increasingly desperate under the eyes of so many people, flustered and fidgeting, searching frantically for an escape. Luckily for him, Sakura and Sasuke chose this moment to descend from the apartment and explode at their poor teammate.

"NARUTO! What do you think-"

"Damnit, dobe, why the hell-"

They stopped, and looked at each other. Wordlessly, each grabbed an ear and hauled the protesting blond back inside for questioning.

Orochimaru watched, amused, then turned back to the still-curious crowd. Naruto's open demeanor had mostly dissipated the tension caused by his display of power, the people of Sound wouldn't be satisfied by so little information. He could capitalize on their curiosity to make sure the little ninja would have a good reception from the villagers.

After all, the more comfortable the blond was, the less likely Orochimaru was to loose such a powerful resource.

So the leader of Sound settled comfortable on a nearby bench, and told the gathering a much-simplified version of Naruto's story. And an hour later, the crowd dissipated to tell their friends and family of the loyalty and power of a little blond jinchurikki…

* * *

Gaara sat beside the window in the large council room, listening to his advisors argue over something trivial.

Barely an hour ago, a wash of power had shocked him upright from a half-doze as one of his senior councilors droned on. None of the other people in the room, civilians and ninja alike, had reacted to it. For a moment, this had puzzled him, and then he detected the distinctive flavor of Naruto's chakra in the electrical wave of power. Not a second later, he had felt Shukuka rear up in the back of his mind and roar in return.

It stood to reason that this was another of the incidents Gaara and his siblings had dubbed 'Naruto-osities'. Things that were just too weird to consider without giving yourself a headache were jokingly blamed on the blond, with a high rate of turning out correct.

A knock on the tall doors to the council room distracted the redhead from his thoughts. Relieved to find something other than the tedious meeting to focus on, he called, "Come in." before his advisors could dismiss the messenger.

The doors creaked open, and an out-of-breath genin focused on Gaara. He executed a quick bow to the young Kazekage. "Kazekage-sama, a missive from Tora-san has come in. A jinchurikki has been captured by missing-nins!"

Gaara frowned and rose, following the genin to his office and ignoring the councilors. As soon as he had taken up his father's robes, the redhead had put the vast spy network at his disposal to finding others like himself. They were told to find them, watch them, and report back. No interference unless absolutely necessary.

Tora was the codename used by the agent he had posted on the border of Fire and Lightning country. He turned to the genin as he entered his office.

"I have a job for you. Low C-class. Go to Oto, the front gates, don't enter. Tell the guards to tell Uzumaki Naruto that a brother is in danger, and to meet me in Hosatura as soon as possible. Go!" The genin nodded, and turned towards the mission room to grab his team.

Hosatura was a tiny village that sat on the border of Lightning and Fire, and was the perfect starting point for a retrieval mission. No ninja, no local lord, and enough shops to stock up from for a mission.

Gaara opened the door to his office, and didn't bother to sit down before he snapped "Report!" to the agent standing in front of his desk.

He listened, frowning. Twelve missing-nin, four A-class, the rest B-class. They were planning to travel to the heart of Fire country and sell their captive to the Akatsuki. Were they fools? The Akatsuki would rip them apart. And how were they containing the jinchurikki? According to his sources, even the weakest of those found so far would be able to escape long enough to find a place to hide.

As soon as his agent stopped talking, he paged the mission office. " A-class mission, I need a team of three or four competent ninjas, chunin or high genin class for a retrieval. I will be accompanying the team, as what we need to retrieve is a jinchurikki. Uzumaki Naruto will also be meeting us in the village of Hosatura. Opponents are four A-class and eight B-class missing-nins."

Gaara's curt voice was loud in the mission room, and every nin there heard. His secretary squawked, "B-but, Kazekage-sama! Surely you'll need more backup!"

Gaara snorted. "Even without my sand, do you remember the reports from the last mission Uzumaki Naruto was involved in? I can beat all of the jonins and most of the ANBU in a straight battle, and he put me in the hospital for three weeks. The backup is already overkill."

He cut the line, and nodded to the agent. "You're to give the team they choose a rundown on the path the missing-nins have taken and where you think they'll go from where they are now. After that, you're dismissed."

The other ninja bowed and left.

Gaara sighed. Hefting his sand-gourd onto his back, the jinchurikki made his way to the mission room to meet his backup.

This mission was going to be filed under 'Naruto-osities', he just _knew_ it.

* * *

Naruto sent a sheepish glance at his teammates.

In the hour it had taken for the blond to adequately explain the events of the night before, the changes Kyuubi's chakra had wrought on his body had slowly reversed themselves, until the only evidence of its presence in his body was slightly pointed ears and pointy nails.

He was left feeling strangely empty without the connection to the natural world the demon had provided. He winced. Of course, that was nothing compared to the sheepish guilt Sakura's lecture about his tenant had evoked.

"Come on, Sakura! You know the grumpy old fox can't take over. And it's not like I'm relying on his power or anything!" Naruto pouted, and both Sasuke and Sakura rolled their eyes.

"Oh, all right…" Sakura relented, and stopped glaring at the blond.

Turning, all three of them gazed out over the road and forest. They were sprawled out directly above the main gate of the first wall, much to the jonin-guards' amusement. Staring at nothing as the morning sun beat down on his face, Naruto frowned slightly.

He knew that Sakura and Sasuke wouldn't like it, but the link the furball had given him to the world around him had been amazing. He had been so much more aware! Maybe, if he could do it without depending on the furball…

_Oi, furball!_

**What?**

_Could I do what you did?_

…**Eh?**

_That connect-y thingy you did to let me get energy from the rain! Could I do that, y'know, all the time?_

Naruto felt the demon's caution and a strange apprehension. He frowned. Why would the fox be nervous? After a moment, it dawned on him.

_Don't worry! I'll still let you feel and see and hear and stuff! The deal isn't off or anything, I just want to be all aware of everything the way I was during the storm without having to use your chakra._

**Hmmm. Well, I suppose you are supposed to be my vessel. And since I can't get rid of you…Fine, but choose a focus now. I want this over with.**

_What?_

**Fool. Choose a part of your body for me to change permanently. Once the proper chakra paths have been carved, you won't need me to induce the connection. **

_Eh, fine. Ummm…my eye! My left eye. That way I'll get the connection thingy and look cool too!_

…**Fool. This will hurt.**

With no further warning, Kyuubi's chakra unfurled and shot into his eye. Naruto sat up and let out a yelp as sudden, sharp pain registered. In concern, both his teammates and the jonins on guard duty turned towards him. Naruto clutched his head, covering his eye. After a moment the pain faded and the strange extra sense that he had discovered during the storm returned.

**Done. Do not disturb me unless there is a fight, nigen.**

Naruto lifted his hands away from his face, and blinked his tingling eye. Sakura gasped. "Your eye!"

Naruto blinked again, this time in confusion. His eye was just the usual red that went with using the Kyuubi's power, right? The jonin on his right, whom he recognized as the one he had nickname Ghost, offered him a small handheld mirror, usually used to flash signals to the other guards. Naruto peered into it.

"Purple. The furball…turned my eye purple." Naruto's voice was perfectly flat.

"Naruto, why was the demon messing with your eyes anyways?! You shouldn't let the Kyuubi do _anything_, let alone mess with your body!" Sakura's voice was slightly shrill.

Across from them, Sasuke snorted. "Calm down. He's obviously not hurt, the seal won't break, and the demon's power is useful to him. The dobe is old enough to make his _own_ decisions."

Naruto cast Sasuke a grateful look, and explained. " Don't worry, furball's chakra was only for making it, it's not running on his energy. My eye is a …a focus, he said. I can sense stuff, like natural chakra and auras and other weird things. It's like, normal senses, then BAM! There's a whole 'nother dimension to everything! It's really cool!"

Before Sakura could respond, the jonins abruptly straightened, and Sasuke shaded his eyes to peer down at the road. Three genins and their jonin instructor were jogging quickly towards Sound. All were wearing Suna headbands. The jonins exchanged a glance over Team Seven's heads, and then one disappeared to get Orochimaru.

Gaara wasn't the only one able to anticipate Naruto-influenced events.

The group stopped a good distance from the wall. The lead genin, a tall boy with short black hair stepped forward, cupping his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Hello! Ummm… A message for Uzumaki Naruto! Kazekage-sama says a brother is in trouble! He says he'll Meet Uzumaki at Hosatura village as soon as possible!"

Naruto frowned at the genin for a moment, thinking over the message. A brother in trouble? His eyes widened. A jinchurikki! He turned to one of the jonins. "Look, I got to go. Tell Orochimaru-"

"I'm right here, Naruto-kun. I heard." Orochimaru leant over the wall, and shouted down to the Suna team, "Message received! He'll join the Kazekage as soon as possible!"

Apparently, this was all the assurance the group needed, as they immediately turned away and headed back the way they came. Orochimaru turned back to the three chunins, smirking. "This will be for Naruto alone, I'm afraid. Sakura-san needs to finish the paperwork needed to make her a Sound ninja, and Sasuke-kun has training with my elite for the next five hours. "

The snake summoner took in the hidden disappointment in Sasuke's face and the open resignation on Sakura's. He sighed. "The next mission, you will do together." He turned to Naruto. "When you get back, I expect those trade agreements you promised me to be cemented to Sound's advantage. We will also speak of your…other plan, involving Konoha."

He regarded them for a moment, and nodded to himself. Yes, they would prove to be a _very_ useful resource. "Naruto-kun, change into mission clothes and go. You know where Hosatura is? Good. I will expect you back in no more than two days. If you are longer, send a message or I will send a search team. "

Orochimaru turned away, walking towards the center of Sound once more. Sasuke nodded to Naruto and followed. Sakura gave him a warm hug, then she too followed.

Naruto sighed, and went back to the apartment he had been sharing with Green-chan to change and grab his pack. Time to get moving.

* * *

…ugh. This chapter just didn't want to end, and half the stuff I wanted to happen wouldn't fit! Oh well... It just means that the next update will be quicker than usual. _-Heliotropic_


	10. Chapter 9

In Which:

Naruto and Gaara reunite- Orochimaru ponders- Naruto meets another jinchurikki- Konoha gets moving.

* * *

Naruto darted swiftly across the open fields that surrounded the border of Fire country and Lightning country. He was two, maybe three hours from Hosatura and was making good time. Dressed in his non-colour clothes once again, the blond was visable only as a stir in the grass. Between his own reflexes and his connection to the living world around him, Naruto's movements were soon so well coordinated with his surroundings that ever when moving he was practically invisible.

Gaara had said 'a brother' was in trouble. Another jinchurikki. What would he be like? Would he be violent and deadly like the Kazekage had been? Naruto frowned, lost in his thoughts. So lost, in fact, that it took him several minutes to register the fact that his feet were no longer touching the ground. Instead, he was gliding steadily above the ground.

When he finally noticed the fact that he was just under three feet above the ground, the blond let out a surprised yelp and tumbled headfirst out of the air.

Naruto picked himself up slowly. He stared at his feet. Finally, he took one step forwards, with no ill effect. And another. And another. It was only when he started picking up speed again that he started rising. This time when he stopped moving, he managed to keep himself in the air.

The blond closed his eyes and turned his concentration inwards. His inner coils were as normal as they ever got, but…yes! The coils leading to his feet had sent out tiny versions of the original coil, and the little coils sat barely under his skin, constantly circulating tiny amounts of natural chakra.

Natural chakra…well, that explained why he was floating. Naruto grinned. This was gonna knock Gaara's socks off!

He leaned forwards and channeled some of his own chakra into his legs, and was off like a shot. The grass behind him was pulled into his wake as Naruto soared at a ridiculously high speed toward the village of Hosatura.

Within a minute, Naruto had completed the three-hour journey and was streaching out the connection Kyuubi had given him, searching for Gaara's familiar energy. He found it on the other side of the village, just approaching the gate.

He grinned.

Not slowing as he approached the wall, Naruto allowed his feet to touch the ground just long enough to push off. He went sailing through the air, high above the roofs of the tiny village, and flew towards his redheaded friend.

* * *

Gaara frowned, and held up his hand to halt the group.

The missions office had decided that if Gaara was going on a mission, he was going to be protected. Knowing that he would flat-out refuse both the jonins and a larger group, they sent the only people he found it hard to disappoint: his siblings and Baki.

Gaara knew it was overkill. Baki knew it was overkill. Hell, even that idiot Kankouro knew it. But Temari had insisted, and Gaara had crumbled so fast it was embarrassing. At least he would get to see Naruto.

Speaking of whom…"I can sense Naruto, but I can't pinpoint his location. It feels like he's right on top of us." Gaara's voice was monotonous as usual, but his siblings could easily detect his slight frustration.

Temari sighed. "Jeez, that brat is so annoying…What'cha wanna bet he's going to prank us?"

Kankouro snickered, and was about to comment, when said blonde's voice echoed through the small clearing.

"Yo, Gaara, look up!"

They looked. They blinked. They stared.

"Isn't this cool? I can fly!"

Gaara was the first to regain his voice. "Naruto…_how?_"

It is impossible to fly. Gaara knew this. No one could control their chakra output so exactly as to stand on air molecules, they just weren't dense enough. But then, Naruto had never allowed the fact that something was impossible to stop him before…

"I've got these weird mini-coils all over now! They're just under my skin and they're not running on my chakra, so I think it's probably the furball's fault again. But who cares! I can fly!"

Behind Gaara, Temari closed her eyes and counted to ten while Kankouro buried his head in his hands. Naruto-ositie number one and the mission had barely started…Why were they not surprised?

"Brat, are you even aware that what you're doing can't happen?" Naruto gave Temari a blank look. She sighed and shook her head. "No, that was a stupid question. Never mind…"

Naruto blinked down at her for a moment longer, floating slowly towards solid ground. Then he shrugged her comment off, and grinned. "Hey, Gaara! Wanna come flying?"

"Eh?"

Naruto clearly took Gaara's confusion for agreement, because one moment the blond was swooping towards him and the next he was high above the ground and soaring at high speed, Naruto's arms tight around his waist.

"_Yaaaaaaa!"_

Gaara's voice was heard for miles around as the Kazekage's terror turned to joy and the two jinchurikki flew.

* * *

Orochimaru stared at the paperwork on his desk, not really seeing it. Instead, his mind was turned inwards, deep in thought.

He knew that taking the two Konoha genin in was, ultimately, a good choice. Both were too open to even be considered for spying on him, and he knew the way Tsunade's mind worked. She would never put either of them in unnecessary danger. But…they were both stirring things up in Sound.

Himoto was one of his to jonins, and the best poison specialist he had ever met. She was also, without exception, the most bloodthirsty man-hater in Sound. Before Naruto had arrived, she had put over half of the male ninja population in the hospital at least once. _Before_ Naruto came. Now most of Sound called her Green-chan, and she didn't protest. And she didn't protest because she was too busy mother-henning a certain absent blond.

Shishu Ikko was his stealth expert among the elite jonins, although he now answered more often to Ghost than to his name. The unflappable ninja had spent the last day and a half hounding Kabuto, trying to find out Naruto's birthday so he could give the little blond several very advanced stealth scrolls. Scrolls he point-blank refused to share with his fellow jonins. His only comment, when asked, was that 'the little guy actually snuck up on me! He's got talent, and it's damn well not going to be wasted!'

And as for Kabuto…he had never seen his right hand man enjoy himself so openly before.

The man was hounded not only by Ikko but by most of the other jonins and chunins as well. He would open himself up to questions, then refuse to answer in anything but riddles for hours, then turn around and casually drop a tidbit of information to the desperate nins. Everyone wanted to know more about Naruto, and Kabuto was clearly enjoying the fact that he knew more than anyone else.

It was ridiculous.

Still…the blond was damn powerful, and he kept Sasuke in line quite easily. The blond had been in Sound for a matter of days, and already the Uchiha was much easier to deal with. His teachers reported that he was much more focused and that he no longer tried to skip over the basic lessons in favor of more powerful techniques.

And little Haruno Sakura was proving to be very useful indeed. In terms of chakra capacity and sheer firepower, she was far behind her teammates, yet she had demonstrated her intelligence. At the moment, the girl was with his medics, including Kabuto, showing them her variations on many medical techniques. From the way Kabuto had been talking, the pink-haired kunonichi was revolutionizing the medic-nin profession, which rather amused him.

Hearing the usually composed man go on like a genin with his first crush was beyond comical.

He knew this was a good choice. They were strong, and the blond brought with him the promise of strong trade allies and an end to the mess he had made of the Konoha mission. They were an asset. But how much would his village change to accommodate them?

Well, however much things changed, he had still won. In one fell swoop he had stolen three powerful ninjas from his former village, taken a jinchurikki from under the Akatsuki's nose, and found a possible channel for many, many alliances. After all, Uzumaki Naruto had friends in high places.

They were strong, yes, strong and connected. And he would benefit from them.

* * *

An hour after Naruto had landed Gaara back on the ground, the group of five had found the missing-nin's trail, and split up. Ten minutes after that, they had ambushed the group, easily splitting their forces. Using their surprise to his advantage, Naruto had immediately killed one of the A-class nins and wounded another. Temari had separated two of the nins from the rest and was playing with them, Baki had killed three and was currently fighting the one Naruto had injured and winning.

Gaara was slowly leading the main body of ninjas away from an ofuda-covered box, leaving Naruto to corner the remaining three.

He darted out from under the cover of a thick bush, throwing a single kunai before disappearing into the undergrowth on the opposite side of the clearing where he had driven his group.

He grinned, listening to the surprised curses of the three missing-nin he was fighting.

_Three ninja. Jeez, they must think I'm weak or something._ Slowly, the blond circled the clearing in which he had ambushed his enemies, watching them search frantically for the source of the thrown kuani. He had them well and truly trapped: He had created several kage bushin while they were still on the group's tail, and they had set up a complex perimeter of tripwires and chakra-coded traps that would explode if anyone other than himself crossed them.

The fact that the clearing he had chosen was hemmed in on one side by a sheer sixty-foot cliff and another was blocked by a deep, wide and very fast moving river meant that the only way the other nins could go was towards the traps.

The three nins calmed down somewhat, but it was clear that they were very much on edge. Naruto had spent the last ten minutes harrying them, driving them steadily towards the cliff. From his vantage point in the undergrowth, Naruto surveyed the situation.

_Barely two feet before they'll have their backs to the cliff. Good enough._ With that thought, the blond jinchurikki stopped playing.

Quick as lightning, he was among them. A strong kick to the female's head made her jump back, crashing into the cliff face and leaving her open for Naruto's kunai. One brutal swipe and she collapsed face-forward in the dirt and her own blood. It had taken the blond less than a second.

That second was long enough for her teammates to distance themselves and settle into defensive crouches, however. Naruto grinned again, then lunged directly at the black-haired one on the left. He parried Naruto's punch and retaliated immediately with a knee to the stomach. Naruto's grin grew wider as he grabbed his opponent's knee and used his momentum to swing him into the nin's partner, who had been circling around behind the blond while Naruto's focus was on the first ninja.

Both went crashing to the ground, but recovered quickly. Silent and much faster than Naruto had expected, the two barreled forward and knocked him back several steps. He let the attack knock him over and used a handspring to bounce backwards.

The move propelled him into the cliff face, which he used both feet to push off of into a vicious kick to the neck of the nin on the right. Had it connected, it could have snapped the missing-nin's neck. The nin was fast, however, and brought his arm up before the kick could connect.

"_Aaaaaaugh!_" The ninja cried out, Naruto's kick breaking his arm and knocking him off his feet. Before he could recover, the blond was inside his guard, an arm around his neck. There was a wet snap as Naruto broke his neck and then he crumpled, dead, beside his female teammate.

The single remaining nin was shaking, hands twitching, nearly dropping his kunai several times as he circled. _Young_, Naruto thought, _Young, and grossly inexperienced. Are they stupid, thinking they could bargin with the Akatsuki?_

Naruto's inattention cost him, as the panicked ninja lunged desperately at Naruto, a lucky blow opening a deep cut from the blonde's collarbone to his waist. Naruto allowed him self to be pushed back, then body slammed the nin towards the edge of the clearing.

The nin stumbled several paces back before he hit the chakra-coded traps. He had time only for a single, blood-chilling scream before the chakra charges overloaded and consumed his inner coils. He slumped to the ground, limp in death.

Naruto stayed crouched for a moment, tense, before letting out a long sigh and sitting down with his back against the cliff. Safe.

He took a moment to douse himself n water from the canteen in his pack, then stood. No use hanging around when in all likelihood the others would have already finished their fights.

Besides, he was certain that the box they had been protecting held another jinchurikki.

* * *

It took Naruto all of a second to arrive back at the clearing in which the ambush had started, flying over the trees.

He arrived just in time to see Kankouro and Temari double-team the last living missing-nin, Gaara and Baki already heading for the box. Baki reached out, placing a hand on it's side. A static charge skipped up his arm, and them the tall man was flying across the clearing. He caught himself just in time to prevent a nasty head injury, and rose quickly.

"Well…" he said, voice shaky. "That explains why they didn't mind chasing us. No chance of stealing that."

Gaara fround, and put a hand out just as Baki had. The charge didn't throw him. Instead, the ofuda crackled, and pushed him back several feet, electricity occasionally penetrating his sand and causing painful shocks.

He and Naruto exchanged a glance.

"Right." Naruto said firmly, then called inwards.

_Oi! Fox!_

**What now?!**

_Jeez, no need to be grumpy! There's another jinchurikki in this box covered with ofuda, and-_

**Ofuda! Take all the energy you need!**

The Kyuubi's voice was dark and heavy with rage. Naruto winced, but quickly dipped into the vast store of demonic chakra made available to him and channeled it into his hands. They glowed an angry red, and the box crumpled under Kyuubi's power.

_Why'd the ofuda thing make you so angry?_

**You nigens created those abominations specifically to harm my kind! Now free the other vessel!**

Naruto hastily pressed his hands to a new area of the box, slightly cowed by the fox's rage. Minutes later, the box was nothing but dust, and they were staring through the bars of a cage at a young boy.

He was crouching in the corner of the cage farthest from the watching ninja, and it was obvious that he was the jinchurikki they had come for. Bruises and cuts, some from knives and some clearly from a whip decorated his body. His skin was pale, and all he had on was a filthy rag around his waist. Lank black hair reached his thighs easily, he had long claws, and on his forearms and torso, scales were visible.

In fact, with his aggressive posture, dirty clothes, and half narrowed eyes, he looked more animal than human.

But to Naruto, he was family. It was clear that he was frightened, and Naruto couldn't blame the boy. He hadn't been able to see anything of the battle, but all of the retrieval group was spattered with blood. All the boy knew was that his captors had been killed, and he knew nothing about the strangers in front of him.

Naruto knelt in front of the cage, close to the bars, and reached a hand towards the shivering boy. Quick as lightning, he lunged at the blonde's outstretched hand, sinking vicious fang into the other's wrist.

Naruto didn't react to the pain at all, and didn't move his hand an inch. After a moment, the boy released his wrist, and watched with wide eyes as the deep cuts left by his fangs healed before his eyes.

He looked at Naruto. The blond smiled as gently as he could, his face open and unafraid. Slowly, the boy approached again. With a care that surprised the watching Suna nins, the boy made a small cut on Naruto's hand with his claws, and watched in fascination as it closed.

He stared at Naruto, coming right up to the bars and touching the blonde's face.

"_-You're like me…-"_ He breathed. The Suna nins frowned, not understanding the language he had used. Naruto's mind raced. The boy had spoken in the language used in the Northern reaches of Wave country. He had learned it in Iruka's class; all genins were required to have a working knowledge of it.

Finally, the language started to come back to him. _"-I am…sacrifice. No, not - I am one-who-contains-other. Contains…demon. Yes?-"_

The boy's eyes lit up _"-You are like me! Will you free me?-"_

"_Yes. Yes, we free you. You are family. You have place? Stay-place?"_

The boy looked away. _"-I don't have a home. They threw me out 'cause I'm a monster.-"_

Naruto frowned, and grasped the boy's chin, forcing him to meet Naruto's mismatched eyes_. "-Not monster. Family. We-who-contain is guardians. We…look after little snake, yes? Have home with us."_

Before the shocked boy could respond, Naruto stood. Channeling natural chakra from the ground into his arms, he wrenched the bars apart. The boy's eyes widened.

Naruto smiled down at the boy, and offered him a hand up. Tentatively, the other jinchurikki grasped Naruto's hand, and was hauled upright and into a warm hug. _"-You family. Gaara and me family too. We help, protect. You one of us.-"_

The boy sighed and snuggled into Naruto, basking in the unexpected affection. _"-My name is Hiro.-"_

"_-I Naruto, other is Gaara and blood-family. Welcome, little snake Hiro.-"_

Leading Hiro by the hand, Naruto approached Gaara. "He doesn't speak our language, he speaks one from northern Wave. His name is Hiro, and he doesn't have a home. Would you mind if I kept him for a while?"

Gaara blinked. "Go ahead, if you think Orochimaru would allow it. If not, he is welcome in Suna."

"Are you sure? The villagers-"

"He is welcome in Suna." The redhead's voice made it clear that anyone who took offence to this in his home village would not be alive very long.

Naruto grinned, and turned to the curious Hiro. "_-Is settled. You come with me, if leader-snake-man not like, we send you to Gaara. He protect good. Not like those-who-hate. Now, must discuss trade with Gaara. Not long!-"_

Narto turned back to his friend. "So, how would you feel about trading with Sound, oh Kazekage-sama?"

A thin eyebrow rose, and with Baki's input, the two began hashing out a trade agreement. Within ten minutes, Hiro became bored with listening to the two argue in a language he didn't understand and wandered over to Temari.

Temari was sitting on the ground, bored out of her mind now that the action was over, and had taken to manipulating tiny breezes between her hands to create patterns on the dirt road. A moment later, she became aware of her wide-eyed audience.

Hiro was crouched in front of her, staring intently at the breezes she manipulated. He looked thoroughly impressed. Temari smirked; this kid was good for her ego. And so the next hour passed: Kankouro dozing, Baki, Gaara, and Naruto negotiating, and Temari entertaining the nine year old Hiro.

Finally, the trade agreement was finalized, and Naruto stood to stretch. The action caught Hiro's attention and within a second the boy was by his side. Naruto smiled down at him, then turned to the others. "Good to see you guys again, but I really should get back now. Orochimaru may be a crochy old man, but he still kicks ass, so I don't wanna be late. Oh, yeah, and when Tsunami from Wave comes with the next delivery, tell her about the whole Sound village thing, 'kay? I don't want them getting worried."

Gaara sighed. "Yes, fine. Goodbye." As one, the Suna nins rose and prepared to leave.

Naruto looked down at his charge, and Hiro looked back. The little boy squeaked in surprise as he was picked up, and Naruto smiled, eyes glowing with excitement. _"-Now, we fly!-"_

And with that, they rose into the air and were off, Hiro's excited yells echoing after them.

Gaara snorted. "Temari, what's the count?"

"Ummm…One:the flying. Two:the ambush plan. Three: the trade agreement. Four: the kid. Four Naruto-osities in one mission. That comes in just under the record, so Kankouro owes Baki ten and Baki and I owe you ten apice."

* * *

"_Jeez, just our luck, yeah? We finally arrive and he's not in. He's supposed to be the Kazekage, yeah?"_

"_Yes. I do not wish to wait around for our target to return, Deidra. We will pursue him another time."_

"_Whatever you say, Sasori-danna. I just want this over with, yeah."_

* * *

What do you think? Like Hiro? There'll be more jinchurikki getting involved soon, not to mention the Konoha group and the Akatsuki. Things are moving along now…

Reviewers requested longer, so longer it is. Just out of curiosity: would people prefer my usual length with updates every week or this length less often?

_-Heliotropic_


	11. Chapter 10

In Which:

Naruto and Hiro arrive in Sound- Naruto learns a lesson –Team Seven start the Konoha Mission.

* * *

Naruto grinned to himself, darting quickly through the air. He was four feet off the ground, and Hiro's delighted laughter drove the blond to higher speeds. The other jinchurikki was riding on his back, exuberantly urging Naruto faster and faster.

They were now in sight of the main gates, and Naruto could see the jonins grinning as they approached. Naruto landed easily a little ways from the gate. Sliding Hiro from his back, he called up to the jonins on guard, "Hey, guys! I found Orochimaru's hidden lovechild!"

And with that unbelievable declaration, Naruto scooped Hiro up and turned him to face the poor jonins. They looked at his burden, and did a double-take.

Long black hair.

High cheekbones.

Pale skin.

Frightening smirk.

The jonins stared. "Holy shit…", whispered one. "They're identical!"

Naruto laughed, and Hiro stared at the jonins in confusion. Why were they so shocked? It couldn't be the way he looked. Naruto had made the boy take a very through bath on their way to Sound, and the blond had also bought him some real cloths. And Naruto had said that they wouldn't care that he was a demon container. What could it be…?

Naruto noticed his small charge's sudden apprehension, and spun the surprised boy to face him. _"-No worried, little Hiro snake! You look like leader-snake of village, so they shocked. Now, we go home! -"_

He turned back to the jonins. "Yeah, scary huh? He's a jinchurikki like me, and considering the fact that he's got scales, I think it's safe to assume that he contains the seven-headed snake. Think Orochimaru will let me keep him?"

One of the jonins snorted. "You're kidding, right? The kid's a jinchurikki, young enough for him to mould, and contains the snake. He's going to keep the boy no matter what."

Naruto nodded. Yeah, that sounded like Orochimaru. "Well, I'm going in. Gotta take Hiro to meet his new leader!" The blond abruptly deflated. "And write my mission report… "

The jonins snickered, and Naruto made his way back into the village of Sound.

* * *

Naruto stood in front of Orochimaru's desk, fidgeting nervously. He had briefed the Otokage and Kabuto, and was now waiting for their reaction to the child standing just in front of him.

Orochimaru broke the silence. "He's…the jinchurikki for the seven-headed snake, hm? And he's, what, eight years old? How…fortuitous."

Naruto shifted from one foot to the other a few times, then blurted out, "Can I keep him? I mean, can he stay in Sound? Please? Look at that face! Isn't he cute? And I bet he'll be a really strong ninja! And-"

"Yes."

"-I'll make sure he doesn't-wait…yes? He can stay? Sweet!" The hyperactive blond turned to the smaller jinchurikki. "_-You can stay! Leader-snake says yes!-_"

Orochimaru watched the two ninja chatter happily at eachouther for a moment. "Kabuto. Put the boy in the Delta wing of the academy dorms, would you? And make sure his teachers know what he is."

The silver-haired ninja bowed. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama. " He turned to the little boy. _"-Come with me, Hiro. We'll get you settled into your new home, and then we'll get something to eat, ok?-"_

Hiro smiled up at Kabuto, and the two left Naruto and Orochimaru alone.

Naruto frowned, uncomfortable. He hadn't been dismissed, and the snake summoner was looking at him with narrowed eyes. Finally, Orochimaru spoke.

"Naruto-kun, as much as I appreciate the fact that you gained such a useful ninja for Sound, I would appreciate some forwarning in the future, understand?"

Naruto scowled. "What? But how would I do that? C'mon, I wasn't about to abandon Hiro! "

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed further, and even with his hugely improved speed, Naruto couldn't react in time to deflect the blow that knocked him into the wall. He stared wide-eyed at the Otokage.

"Understand this, Naruto-kun," Orochimaru purred, "I am not Tsunade or Sarutobi. If you do not have my express permission, you do not go outside mission parameters. Your mission was to free one jinchurikki, no bring him back to Sound."

He crouched down, looking Naruto in the eye. "I admit that I have been slightly lax, as I have not given you a communications necklace to contact me, but I tolerate neither rudeness nor disobedience. Remember, you are a Soundnin now. You are under my command, Naruto-kun, and I have never claimed to be a good or gentle person."

Then the Otokage was back in his seat, looking through his papers as though nothing had happened. "Now, I have looked through your plan for Konoha, and It is acceptable. You will begin the groundwork thursday at noon, and the actual mission will commence in two weeks. You are in charge of the team, as it is your plan. You have the next two weeks to train Sasuke, Sakura, Himoto, and Ikko in the necessary skills. Dismissed."

Naruto hauled himself upright, bowed, and left the room silently.

* * *

Naruto leaned against the wall outside Orochimaru's office, cradling his bruised cheek in the palm of his hand.

He had forgotten.

Forgotten that this was the man who had killed Hokage-jiji, the man who had been so ruthless in the Forest of Death, the man who had performed experiments on living humans.

Oh, in the back of his mind he had been aware of it, but the Otokage had been indulgent and…and almost kind to him. Naruto sighed, and opened his eyes. Was he so used to looking for the best in people that he forgot about the worst? Well, it didn't matter. He had been reminded now, and he still had no regrets.

He was here for Sasuke. Everything else was obsolete. His team, the people he could and had given up everything for, was more important than the enigma that was the Otokage. Naruto couldn't help but grin ruefully. Besides, some of the people he respected and admired most were mass murderers.

Between Zazuba, Itachi, Kisame, and Orochimaru, all of whom he respected for their strength, Orochimaru was far from the worst.

And besides, Sound made over seventy different types of Ramen!

* * *

Sasuke stared at the mission notes that the jonin Shishu Ikko had handed to him. The white-haired man flopped down beside him in the grassy clearing where he had been training. The black-haired boy hid his surprise at that, the jonin was famously antisocial.

Ikko must have noticed, however, as he flapped a hand in Sasuke's direction. "Go on, read it. Looks like we're going to be spending some time together, so I might as well get the stupid intro stuff over with. "

Sasuke blinked, and opened the file.

_Mission for:_ Shishu Ikko, Yatsutori Himoto, Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura

_Captain:_ Uzumaki Naruto

_Assistant_:Shishu Ikko

_Objective_: Neutralize hostilities from Konoha

_Secondary Objective_: Retreive Konoha documentation on the recent Chunin Exam

_Plan_: Konoha has the support of many major villages against Oto. This is based on the unlawful entry of Oto and Suna nins. To neutralize or destroy this support, Oto must have entered Konoha lawfully. To make this happen, retrive all documentation pertaining to the invasion, and bring to mission base. There Uzumaki Naruto and Shishu Ikko will rewrite the documents to show a lawful entry based on Konoha's laws:

I) A missing-nin of Konoha has the right to retrive all belongings without persicusion.

II)If a missing-nin of Konoha is taken in by another village, all charges are dropped until such a time as aforementioned missing-nin becomes a missing-nin once again

Uchiha Sasuke and Yatsutori Himoto will be retriving the documents. Haruno Sakura is the team's medic-nin and is in charge of communications. Shishu Ikko is the team's hardhitter and backup. Uzumaki Naruto is team captain.

_Note_: Uzumaki Naruto will be teaching his team several skills before mission commencement. Mission will commence when Uzumaki Naruto reports his team fit for duty.

_Note_: Uzumaki Naruto has been authorized to make changes to any part of the above plan of action as long as the objectives are fulfilled. Uzumaki Naruto is also permitted to make contact under neutral terms with the following people: Hyuuga Neji, Hyuuga Hinata, Nara Shikamaru, Aburane Shino. Approved by the Otokage.

Sasuke blinked again. "We're…stopping the war. Naruto figured out a was to make what Sound did legal so Konoha won't have a leg to stand on with the other Great Villages, and there's no way Konoha would win without some major support." The sharigan weilder shook his head. "And people still think he's a dead-last?"

Ikko looked up. "Eh? A dead-last? You're kidding." Sasuke shook his head. "Kid, I'm the stealth expert of the Elite ANBU teams, and your blond friend snuck up on me. Himoto's a man-hater, and she's mother-henning the boy like crazy. Hell, the kid's actually made Kabuto laugh a few times. How the heck did you Konoha nins miss him?"

Sasuke winced, and told the other quietly, "Naruto was shunned for what he contains. He…acted out constantly to get attention, and he was terrible in school. He still can't make a passable bushin."

Ikko frowned. "I heard that one of the kid's specialties was kage bushin, though."

"It is. Well, was. He can make thousands of kage bushin without being winded, but the normal bushins escape him completely. They always end up looking …well, dead."

Ikko frowned. "Huh. That's interesting…"

And with that, the two sank into silence.

* * *

"Excuse me, Haruno-sensei?"

Sakura looked up from the surgery report she was writing, into the face of a nervous-looking chunin. "Yes, what do you need?"

The boy blushed slightly. "Uhm, Yatsutori Himoto says that you need to meet her outside so you can discuss your newest mission."

Sakura sighed, but rose from behind her desk. "Well, alright. I can finish the report later. New mission, you say? Do you no any thing about it?

The boy's blush grew darker as Sakura smiled at him. "Ah, n-no, Haruno-sensei. She just told me to go get you."

"Ah well. So, you're Seta-san from class D, right? How's your training going?"

The medic-in-training gulped and stammered. "A-ah, I-that is-It's going well. Um…you're really cool, Haruto-sensei! I-I mean, I got to observe one of your surgeries last week, a-and, um, you're …"

Sakura smiled again, basking in the boy's praise. "Thank you very much, Seta-san. I'm flattered you think that."

Sakura giggled as the boy flushed an even deeper shade and went silent. She still wasn't used to having such admiration directed at her, when in Konoha she has simply been Sakura, weakest of Team Seven, even once she began training seriously.

"Ah, hello Sakura-chan!"

And then, of course, there was Kabuto. Turning, she greeted the silver-haired man. " Hello, Kabuto-kun. How are you? Is Mari's physical therapy going well?"

Kabuto laughed, and sidled in between her and the blushing Seta. "Always so work-oriented, Sakura-chan! I am fine, as is Mari. However, I did want to talk to you about the notes you gave me yeasterday, on the chakra string variations. "

"Oh, yes! I'd forgotten. So, what do you think? Is it feasible?"

"Yes, with some minor alterations…"

Within a second, Kabuto and Sakura were deep in conversation, leaving Seta to glare at Kabuto's back.

A few minutes later, Sakura and her silver haired escort were at the doors of the hospital. Bidding the other medic goodbye, she walked quickly down the steps to meet Himoto.

The other woman winked slyly at her. "So, Kabuto, huh? You sure move quick, girl. You haven't even been here a week!"

Sakura turned red. "It's not like that! I've just been running some of my newer medical jutsus by him before I start experimenting. You know, to cut down on mistakes and stuff?"

Himoto laughed, and patted her head. "Don't worry, Sakura-san, I'm just teasing. Men are trash, anyways."

Still crimson, Sakura quickly changed the subject. "The chunin who you sent to get me mentioned a mission?"

Himoto nodded, and handed the girl a file identical to the one Ikko had given Sasuke, except that Sakura's held the medical histories and conditions of everyone on the team. The two sat down on a bench in front of a flower shop. Sakura was completely engrossed in reading the file. Himoto, having already read it, waited impatiently.

Sakura finished it, and looked at the other. "So…I guess we're working together for the next little while."

"Yes. But don't worry, I'm not hard to get along with, and Ikko is practically asexual, so he's less trash than the rest of the opposite gender."

Sakura giggled. "Sasuke's pretty much asexual too. I mean, he had this huge fanclub back in Konoha, and he hated us. Any other guy would be rejoicing!"

"Hated 'us'? You were a part of it? I take it that you've changed your mind since."

"Well…mostly I was a part of it because my best and only friend was. The fact that Sasuke was handsome helped, though. But…he's only human. And he really, really hurt Naruto-kun. I get that he wants revenge, and I'll support him, but not at that kind of cost, you know? I care about him, but I can't love someone who would try to kill his precious person for power. "

Himoto blinked, not expecting such a serious answer. "You've got heart, girl, and guts, not to mention a whole lot of talent. Don't worry about the Uchiha. Guys are crap anyways, so if you're going to moon over one, at least find one that's halfway decent."

Sakura grinned at the other woman. "Don't worry. I will, eventually. In the mean time, lets go shopping! I need new kuani, and some of that pre-sterilized bandage to experoment on."

"Experiment on?"

"Yeah! I Talked to Kabuto, and he says it's possible. What I want to do is weave chakra strings into the fabric and anchor some minor healing and anti-infection jutsus to it."

"Sounds interesting! C'mon, lets go, you can tell me more while we walk."

* * *

Finally, chapter ten. I haven't updated in a long while, for which I apologize. (Live has been beyond hectic lately…) I think this chapter fixed Orochimaru's character, as I was kind of lax about keeping him IC. So, what do you think?

Also, should Kabuto and Sakura get together? I can't quite decide where I want that to go… _-Heliotropic_


	12. Chapter 11

In Which:

Naruto and Sasuke talk – Orochimaru receives a report – Naruto trains his new team –There is a death in the ranks of Sound.

* * *

He was sitting on the edge of the outermost wall of Sound, staring at the dawn. He had been sitting in the same spot, never moving, for almost three hours now, just thinking. Naruto wasn't sure that he'd truly understood what it would mean, leaving his village behind. It was strange, living in Sound instead of Konoha. There was no Kiba to fight with, no Tsunade-baa-chan to annoy, no Old Man Ichiraku to tell his stories to.

And he liked it. Oh, he missed Iruka-sensei, and Tsunade, and Kakashi-sensei, and all the others, but…

But in Sound, there were no villagers who pointed and whispered and refused to give him decent food. No one to belittle him. Here, he had his team, and Himoto and Ikko, and little Hiro, and even Kabuto and Orochimaru. Here, people knew he was a jinchurikki, had seen him use the furball's chakra, and it didn't matter. If anything, they treated him better now that they knew!

Naruto sighed, and laid his head on hid knees, staring out at the rising sun. It was so much nicer, living in Sound. He wasn't sure he could leave, now.

Sound was beginning to feel like it could be home.

"Naruto."

The blond lifted his head, unsurprised at having his thoughts interrupted. Sasuke had been watching him for a while, it was about time he announced his presence.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? The sunrise?"

His teammate grunted, not really answering, and sat down beside him. For a few minutes, they looked out over the forest and fields bathed in the light of the rising sun.

"Have you thought this through?"

Sasuke jumped slightly, and turned to look at his blond friend. "What?"

"Have you thought this through, Sasuke? You've got two and a half years before Orochimaru takes over your body. Is that really what you want? Because, Sasuke, it won't be you that kills Itachi."

Sasuke visibly jerked, eyes narrowing, but Naruto continued to speak, staring out over the wall.

"It won't be you that fights him. It'll be Orochimaru wearing your face. And there's no guarantee he'll win, you know. Itachi has beaten him before."

Finally, the blond turned away from the view to look his friend directly in the eyes. "We, Sakura and I, followed you to Sound because we care about you. We want you to have the chance to be happy. And we'll still follow you, whatever other choices you make."

Sasuke nodded slowly.

"But Sasuke, we're a team. We expect the same thing from you. If Sakura decides she wants to take over Mist, we expect you to be there with us, okay? We're a team, so we stay together. No matter what."

Sasuke was silent for a long, tense moment. Then a tiny smile flickered across his face.

"Fine. I can live with that." He sighed, seeing the expectant expression on Naruto's face. "Give me some time to think about the rest of it."

"Sure, We've got almost three years, after all."

* * *

"Orochimaru-sama, a new report has just come in. It contains some information I think you will find…enlightening."

Orochimaru set the papers in front of him aside, and fixed Kabuto with a penetrating stare. "Enlightening in what way?"

Kabuto smiled grimly. "It has to do with your former associates, the Akatsuki. It seems that two of their number have been significantly weakened. Not only that, but the pair," Kabuto glanced at the report in his hand, "Hidan and Kakuzu, are not known to be the most powerful members. In addition, Hidan is a relatively new addition to the Akatsuki."

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed slightly. "And you say they have been weakened? How, exactly? I know Kakuzu, and I have heard of Hidan, it would not be an easy task to injure either one."

Kabuto set the report down on the desk in front of the Otokage. "Apparently, their encounter with one of the jinchurikki they were to capture did not go well. Both are suffering from severe burn damage, more Kakuzu than the other one. Hidan has lost the use of one of his arms, and his usual weapon, a three bladed scythe, has been severely damaged."

Orochimaru frowned, staring down at the report. "Hmmm…"

* * *

Naruto let out a much-exaggerated sigh as he stretched and stood. The wall had been strangely comfortable, and serious stuff aside; he had enjoyed just talking with Sasuke again. Still, the sun was high, so…

"Time to get things started!"

Sasuke cracked open one eye, peering down at the blond from his position on the wall. He sighed and sat up reluctantly. "What do you mean, dobe?"

"The mission, of course! We've gotta get you guys all ready! You go collect Ikko and Sakura; they're both at the hospital. I'll find Green-chan and we'll all meet back at training ground three."

Sasuke frowned. "Yes, I noticed that the mission outline mentioned training. What, exactly, are you going to teach us?"

"You'll see!"

True to form, it took Sasuke all of three minutes to locate the two ninjas. Sakura had been in the cafeteria, talking to Kabuto, and Ikko had been hovering near the administrative desk, waiting for a medical report on one of the injured jonins. It hadn't taken him long to draw the two away, they had responded immediately and eagerly to the mention of Naruto and the tantalizing possibility that the blond would show them some of his mysterious techniques.

They arrived at the clearing that was training ground three at nearly the same time as Naruto and Himoto, and the blond soon had them all lined up with their backs to the surrounding trees.

"Right!" Naruto exclaimed, grinning widely at them. "For this mission, we're all going to need different stuff! Sasuke and Himoto are going to steal the documents we need, so I'm going to show you two my stealth technique!"

Sasuke's head came up, eyes narrowed at the possibilities that presented, and Himoto grinned. Ikko, on the other hand, looked rather disappointed and Sakura just shook her head. Completely ignoring their reactions, Naruto continued. "Ikko's gonna be backup incase any of us screw up, so I'm showing him two of my own jutsus! Be honored, Ikko, you will be the first person other than me to learn them!"

Ikko looked much more satisfied now, while Sasuke leveled a jealous glare at him. Sakura and Himoto exchanged a glance, and then rolled their eyes in perfect unison. "And last but not least, Sakura-chan! I'm gonna show you my water-finger-exercise-thingy, and you're gonna combine it with chakra strings!"

Sakura's head came up, and she frowned. How would Naruto's water exercise combined with chakra strings be useful?

Naruto beamed at his team, he couldn't help it. Him, a teacher! Who'd of thought? "Let's get you started! Stealth people, south corner with me!"

Sasuke and Himoto followed the hyper blond to one corner of the training ground. He bounced on his heels for a moment, grinning at them. "Okay! Stealth. The first thing I need you to do is find some scraps of clothing, the older the better, and get lots of them. Dig through the trash if you have to, but bring lots! You've got ten minutes to find enough scrap cloth to cover both of you twice over. Go!"

Himoto looked at Sasuke. Sasuke looked at Himoto. In near unison, they both shrugged and leaped off towards the village. Naruto didn't watch them go, instead he dragged Ikko into the eastern corner of the training ground, and handed him a bag fill of different balls: balloons, rubber balls, beach balls, glass balls, anything and everything.

"Okay! You're going to learn a modified version of my pinhead Rasengan! See, we need to be on reasonably good terms with Konoha, and killing their people isn't really going to do that. So! I modified my modified Rasengan so that it only used chakra, no wind. Then I changed the way it spins so that the blow doesn't affect the target's body. It messes up their chakra system something fierce!"

"You hit a person with this technique anywhere, and it'll take about a minute before they're completely unable to use chakra! Um…I'll teach you how to fix them too. But it's really cool! See, the impact creates a knot in their chakra coils, and so the body automatically sends more chakra to that location, knotting up more chakra, and it continues until the whole system is a mess!"

Ikko's eyebrows had slowly been climbing his forehead all through the explanation, and by the time Naruto wound down, they had disappeared into his hair. Thoroughly impressed with the results of Naruto's technique, he listened attentively as the blond explained first the steps for learning the normal Rasengan, then the steps for this modified version.

Naruto left Ikko with the many balls and a command to tell him when he had completed the first step, and went to Sakura. Instead of a quick explanation and some basic exercise like he had given Ikko, Naruto leaned in close and began whispering his idea into her ear. Within moments, Sakura was wide-eyed and nodding vigorously.

Ikko watched with curiosity, wondering what had the normally composed girl so excited, but soon returned to his task.

Sakura was sent off to the nearest body of water with clear directions as to how the exercise worked and a command to grab someone she trusted to spot mistakes, Before Naruto turned to face Sasuke and Himoto, their arms full of cloth.

He grinned at them. "Right, here's what you do…"

* * *

Sakura sighed softly, walking at a fast pace towards the lake on the west side of Sound, and turned to Kabuto, who was walking beside her. "Hey…Thanks, Kabuto-san. For helping with the exercise Naruto set me, and everything. Um…but don't you have something to do? I mean, at the hospital or with Orochimaru-sama?"

Beside her, the silver-haired man frowned. "Today is my day off at the hospital, so no worries there, Sakura-san. As for Orochimaru-sama…I don't know. He just gave me a day off, just out of nowhere. He's been is a very strange mood since this morning."

Reaching the edge of the small lake, Sakura frowned back. "Well, is there any reason for it? I mean, was a spy caught, or one of his jonins killed or something?"

Watching the girl water-walk out onto the water, Kabuto wracked his memory. "Yes, actually. A report came in that two of his old associates have been weakened. After he read the report, he seemed strangely pensive."

Slowly levering herself up on one finger, arm trembling slightly from the strain of holding up her weight as well as channeling the chakra to keep herself above water, Sakura asked absentmindedly, "Old associates?"

Kabuto nodded. "Yes, Hidan and Kakuzu of the Akatsuki"

Sakura's concentration broke, and she plunged headfirst into the water. Spluttering, she surfaced to stare incredulously at Kabuto.

"You're kidding!"

* * *

"You…" Orochimaru choked on the rest of the sentence, coughing up blood against the hard-packed earth beneath his cheek. A low chuckle was the response.

"I can't believe you fell for such obvious bait, oh Otokage. Old age has clearly slowed you down."

The snake summoner could make no response, unable to speak through the blood. Still, he desperately tried to lever himself up, scrabbling for a hold even as his arms gave out on him. A heavy boot impacted against his broken ribs, and Orochimaru went flying, hitting a tree trunk with a sickening crunch and collapsing. He couldn't move, couldn't persuade his body to obey him through the pain.

Orochimaru was dying, and he knew it.

He didn't have the chakra to switch bodies, barely had the energy to pry his eyelids open and watch the pair in Akatsuki cloaks approach his broken body. He was a fool twice over, for believing any one person, even a jinchurikki, could weaken Kakuzu and his new partner, and then for coming alone to gloat and to deliver the deathblow to two members of the organization he had betrayed.

He allowed his eyes to slip shut for one agonizing moment, concentrating, and shakily brought his left hand to clasp the pendant around his neck.

"Oi, what's he holding?"

Orochimaru heard the words as if he was underwater, distorting their meaning. He felt a flash of bitter triumph as he pressed the very last of the chakra into the communication pendant, alerting every Soundnin of his imminent death, forcing the information through the connection.

_I am dying, this is where I fell, this is who killed me, avenge my death…_

Orochimaru slowly opened his eyes, looking up at his former partner and the newest member of the Akatsuki standing over him. He managed through the blood and pain and the creeping cold that was his death, to flash the two a viscous grin.

They would die, his people, his ninja, would see to that.

A small victory, a petty victory, but it was enough to bring him satisfaction as the Otokage Orochimaru, Snake Summoner and one of the Legendary Sannin, died.

* * *

In unison, every ninja in Sound raised his or her head. The words of their leader echoed through their minds, and as one, they dropped what they were doing and headed to the central command building.

The villagers were left standing in the streets, confused, as every single ninja dropped everything and ran. Naruto and his team were no different, moving swiftly through the village. They arrived to find absolute chaos. Everyone had something to say right now, and no one was willing to wait to speak. The ninja shouted at one another, trying to make themselves heard and only adding to the din.

Sakura, Ikko, and Himoto all tried vainly to calm the crowd that was quickly becoming a mob, with little success. Naruto stared out over the chaotic mass of people, and sighed quietly.

"Quiet."

The word was spoken softly, and for a moment it seemed lost in the noise of the crowd. But slowly, like ripples on a pond, the people surrounding Naruto stopped speaking and their silence spread like a ripple across still water. Soon, all was silent.

"Orochimaru is dead. We all know it. We know who did it, and where, and how."

Naruto's soft words rang sharply in the silence, and something in the diminutive blonde's voice arrested the attention of everyone in the room.

"We will ensure the safety of the civilians of Sound, get them into the emergency tunnels. We will collect data on all members of the Akatsuki."

This caused an angry murmur to go through the crown. They wanted blood, violence, a hunt. They wanted something tangible to fight. They wanted the killers dead! Naruto's eyes narrowed, and the blond summoned up all the killer intent that the Kyuubi had ever brought to bear against him, and slammed it into the crowed.

"We will collect data on all members of the Akatsuki. Then…

"Then we isolate them. Hunt them down. Execute them."

Every eye was on the blond. He felt more than saw Sakura and Sasuke move to stand behind him as he stared from the doorway at the ninjas of Sound.

"We will eradicate the Akatsuki. Then, and only then, will a new Otokage be chose."

* * *

…yeah. So, between exams, family reunions, and sleeping in 'till 12 pretty much every day, this chapter took a lot longer than expected to write.

Still not sure I like the end bit. Might rewrite it at some point. Meh, whatever, just tell me what you think! -Heliotropic


	13. Chapter 12

In Which:

A council is formed – Sakura creates a technique – Sasuke is promoted – The Konoha plan is modified and carried out.

* * *

The village of Sound was a hive of activity. Kabuto and Himoto had the villagers gathering food, clothing, firewood, water and other necessities and taking them into the network of tunnels that wound under the surface of the village and far beyond. 

In the lull that followed Naruto's speech, the blond had taken charge of the lower level ninjas. He set the genin teams to fortifying and securing the walls as well as clearing out the tunnels so they would be ready for use at a moments notice. The chunins he had sent out into the forest to set as many interlocking traps as they could manage, reasoning that as soon as the other villages found out about the death of their leader, they would attack the vulnerable village.

All higher-level ninjas he had scooped up and whisked off to the round training ground that the academy students (few as they were in Sound) used for training. Slowly, from yelled comments, quiet observations, and fights that only Naruto's rather exasperated gaze kept from becoming physical, sensible plans emerged.

A council of ninja and civilians would be formed: Two representatives from the jonins, two from the secretive ANBU, and two from the villagers would be voted onto the council, which would manage the village's resources and decide the actions of the village on a large scale until a new Otokage was chosen. Several sidelong glances were sent to the oblivious Naruto as the ninja hashed out their plan of action. All of them had noticed the easy way the blond had taken charge, and the smoothness with which he calmed the crowd.

Many of them liked what they saw.

* * *

Sakura sighed in relief as the last razor wire slid easily into place, and nodded to the chunin on her left. He, too, sighed in relief, and signaled to the other six ninja in her area. The chunin had divided into mostly-even groups, and each group had taken an area of forest to trap. Her group was now done. 

Time to train, then.

She rose from her spot in the undergrowth – now dusted with a powder that glowed neon green when it touched skin – and headed back towards the village. It was almost noon now, so Kabuto should be off his shift at the central building. Maybe he'd be willing to help her again...

She smiled at the thought.

The technique Naruto had suggested she create was coming along very, very well. The water technique that the blond had taught her had improved her already above average control to the point that she had defeated Himoto in a friendly spar by sending a tiny spark of her own chakra into the other female's fire technique, disrupting it so badly that the jutsu had blown up in Himoto's surprised face.

That new control, combined with the chakra strings technique, was going to prove deadly. She and Kabuto had figured out how to refine the strings, making them strong as steel and so thin and concentrated that they were invisible even to Sasuke's eyes. The invisible strings changed length at Sakura's will, always staying taut.

She had, using Kabuto as her guinea pig, figured out how to fuse her own chakra in the form of the strings with another person's chakra points. The other person could still think, speak, and understand his or her surroundings, but the result of the technique was basically a human puppet.

She was now working on controlling more than one person at a time, with Kabuto forming an obscure type of mizu bushin that possessed chakra points and Sakura struggling to contain three, four, even five of them as they fought her control. She grinned to herself as the central building came into view.

Weak little Sakura? Not any more.

* * *

"This isn't really useful anymore, is it?" 

Naruto looked up from the pile of papers he was sorting to see Sasuke frowning at a mission file. "Eh?"

"The Konoha mission you got Orochimaru to approve. Considering the fact that he is no longer the leader of Sound, it's not really needed."

"Awwwww! But I put so much effort into making it! I got the schedule for all the patrols in Konoha for a month, and the location of some really cool secret entrances, and all kinds of ways to get around the protections on the filing rooms! Seems a shame to waste it..."

Kabuto, arms filled with rolls of bandages, paused in the doorway. "The information is still usable. Why don't you rewrite the mission to portray Sound in a better light, rather than just Orochimaru-sama?"

Sasuke, still peering at the mission outline in the dim light of the tiny filing room, nodded absent-mindedly and wandered out into the main room. Alone with the mountains of paperwork that Orochimaru's death and the subsequent reorganization of the village had generated, Naruto sighed.

Who thought he'd ever miss D-class missions?

For almost an hour, the blond worked in silence, checking each folder, filing it, and noting down it's new home on a long sheet of paper. The constant repetitive task lulled him into a state of such utter boredom that by the time thirty minutes had passed, Naruto was praying for a distraction. An explosion, an attack, a piece of moldy cheese thrown at his head, anything!

He got his wish in the form of a panting genin appearing in the doorway. "Uzumaki-san! The council's gone crazy!"

The blond blinked from his place on the ground, and thought of the people that now formed the council. The jonins on the council were Ikko and a lady who was a pyromaniac, the villagers were a half-mad 'prophet' and a woman with gambling problems worse than Tsunade's, and the ANBU...well, they were ANBU.

He gave the genin a blank look. "And?"

The boy looked puzzled for a moment, then smiled sheepishly. "I mean, crazier than usual. Um... the death threats sounded sincere and they were completely ignoring the buffet."

Naruto grinned. "They were ignoring food? Hah! That's bad enough to get me out of this stupid paperwork without Sakura-chan lecturing me! Sweet! Let's go!"

The walk to the council room was short but filled with Naruto's cheerful chatter and the rather awed genin's tentative interjections. They slowed as they came to the doors of the council room. Through the thick, solid oak doors they could hear the voices of the council. Even without words, the voices somehow conveyed an emotion fast approaching homicidal rage.

The poor genin paled, and all the good humor drained from Naruto's face. The council was supposed to lead the village and keep the peace, and they were shouting loud enough to be heard through the door and halfway down the hall? No wonder all the ninja they had passed on the way here had been tense! His faced darkened.

"Wait here." He told the genin quietly. "I'll take you back to your supervisor after I've sorted these idiots out."

Not waiting for an answer, Naruto opened the door quietly and slipped inside. It was chaos. The report files that the council should have been going over were on the floor, and the council itself was shouting across the banquet table at each other. The little old woman with the gambling problem was standing on her chair with her hands cupped around her mouth, trying to shout louder than Ikko, who was across from her. The rest of the council was in as bad or worse shape.

Naruto leaned back against the door and waited for them to notice him.

A minute later, they still hadn't noticed, and Ikko was about to come to blows with one of the ANBU. Naruto sighed softly, truly disappointed in the people in front of him, and cleared his throat pointedly.

Finally noticing him, the group didn't quiet, but instead directed all their shouting at him, trying to drown each other out. Naruto's eyes narrowed and his upper lip curled back in a contemptuous sneer. The expression was so out of place on the cheerful blonde's face that finally the council quieted.

Naruto pushed away from the door, which slid open slightly behind him unnoticed. He snorted aloud, glaring at the council.

"You," he snarled, "Are _supposed_ to be the leaders of Sound. You are _supposed_ to make the choices that will keep this village running. Instead, I find you squabbling like brats in the middle of the council room, with no regard for the people outside, the people looking to _you_ for guidance! Villagers throwing things, ninja about to come to blows, even the ANBU loosing control! "

The male villager opened his mouth as if to protest, and Naruto cut him off with a vicious swipe of his hand, pointing at the wreckage of the room. "I don't want to hear excuses! You lot are acting like children, so I'll treat you like children. Clean up this room. I want everything neat. Then go to the academy barracks and choose rooms as far away from each other as possible and go to bed without supper."

This time it was Ikko who protested. "Hey, that's not – "

"Not what? Not _fair_? What about the people you're responsible for? Is it _fair_ for you to forget your duty to them so you can bring personal differences into a council meeting? Is it _fair_ for you to disregard the ninja outside this door who found their leaders about to attack each other? Life isn't fair, but considering the damage you _children_ did, believe me, I am being as _fair_ as I can stomach."

Literally white with rage, Naruto glared the council down. "Get cleaning."

* * *

Outside the thick oak door, the genin who had shown Naruto to the council room exchanged wide-eyed glances with several other low-level ninja who had joined him in listening in. Hearing someone approach the door from the other side, the others scattered back to the main administrative areas. The genin grinned to himself as he waited for Naruto to emerge. The story would be all over the village in minutes. 

And he, for one, had a very good guess as to who the next Otokage would be.

* * *

Sasuke frowned thoughtfully as he made his way from the busy administrative sector of Sound towards the deserted homes in the second ring. Kabuto was right, the mission could be rewritten to make it useful again. It would be easy enough to tweak the changed text they had originally written to insert into various reports to put the ninjas of Sound in a better light. And the people of Konoha would be more than willing to see Orochimaru as the ultimate 'bad guy'. 

Hmmm. He couldn't write out any specifics, as he didn't have the reports they would be altering, but there was the potential for some truly artistic changes. The ninjas of Sound would be 'reluctant to fight', and have to be 'goaded into a confrontation'. They would be 'quick to desert the fight' when Orochimaru retreated, and they would show only 'hesitant loyalty' to the snake sannin.

Oh, yes. He could _work_ with this.

* * *

Under Naruto's watchful eye, the council had cleared the room of all the debris they had created, then shuffled out of the room in the direction of the ninja academy. The blond was the last to leave the room, smiling at the genin as he locked the door behind him. 

"Sorry that took so long, but the idiots are sorted. I'm gonna sit in on council meetings from now on, 'cause that was just stupid. If they're gonna lead this village, they're going to show some common sense!" Muttering under his breath, Naruto followed the genin through the building and out towards the tunnels.

The tunnels had once been a network of natural caverns weaving in irregular patterns through the bedrock under the village. The judicious use of earth and fire jutsus had smoothed the walls of the many chambers and made them into an organized and well-protected sanctuary for the people of Sound. It was currently also home to a great many genin and their supervisors.

The genin walking beside Naruto tried desperately to muddle his snickers as the blond's names for various councilors went from embarrassing to ridiculous to downright foul. He was getting a mixture of scandalized and amused looks from the passing ninjas and villagers as well, since he didn't bother to keep his voice down. Finally, they passed into the entrance of the tunnels. The genin threw a glance over his shoulder.

From an oak tree, a girl of the same age grinned and gave him the thumbs-up. Naruto was distracted, and his mission was complete.

Ten minutes after Naruto had left the council room, and just as he was entering the tunnels, said room was slowly filling with people. They seated themselves wherever possible: the chairs, tables, and the ground were covered quickly. Some of the ninja gave up on finding a place on the ground and simply walked up the walls and sat on the ceiling.

Sasuke found a place in one corner, along with Sakura and Himoto. They greeted each other quietly, and turned towards the door. A panting girl leaned against the doorframe and announced to the packed room, "He's in the tunnels! We've got at least an hour."

There was a collective sigh, and a chunin stood at the front of the room.

"You know why we're here. We, as a group, represent every single group in Oto and all of you should have collected the votes from your respective groups. The votes will be placed in the box at the front of the room and one of the ANBU will count the votes for who will be our next Otokage. As a reminder, the candidates decided on yesterday were Yakushi Kabuto, Kazuki Kanna, Orimota Toshiro, and Uzumaki Naruto, all of which have been otherwise occupied for the duration of the vote and none of which know they were chosen. Votes for anyone else will not me counted. If everyone would please line up..."

* * *

Ok, for those of you who haven't seen my profile, I'm on vacation and have access to a computer twice a week for an hour if I'm lucky, which explains the length of tome it took me to update. 

I'm getting back on the 6th, so there will be a new chapter that week, but I can't guarantee anything new before then. Sorry! Reviews are still read and welcomed! -Heliotropic


	14. Chapter 13

In Which:

The Otokage is chosen – Sasuke displays the mind that had him named genius – Naruto gains a fangirl – Sound begins to move against Akatsuki.

* * *

The vote had been close, very close. Between them, the jonins Orimota Toshiro and Kazuki Kanna received only about 16 of the votes, but that surprised no one. They were relatively unknown to most of Sound, and the villagers outnumbered the ninja. There was barely one percent difference between Naruto and Kabuto. 

The villagers knew Naruto, too, but mostly from stories. The brief summary Orochimaru had given them of his past had circulated and grown in the telling, as had Hiro's rescue. He was undeniably powerful, he was friendly and charismatic, but he was also very young. They wondered if someone Naruto's age could lead a village successfully.

The villagers knew Kabuto: he was always running errands for Orochimaru, he was a constant fixture at the hospital, and he was familiar. On the other hand, he was a smug bastard who could get on a person's nerves without ever opening his mouth. They wondered if Kabuto could lead for more than a week without someone assassinating him.

The votes were counted, the decision made. Yakushi Kabuto would be proclaimed Otokage in three days.

* * *

"AUGH!" 

Sasuke smirked. Standing across the training ground from his teammate, Naruto scowled in response. It had been Sakura's idea to get together to train the way they used to, but she had been called away by an emergency at the hospital, leaving Sasuke and Naruto alone. The blond was trying to hold one of Sasuke's fire techniques long enough to melt a rusty kunai – and failing miserably.

"Having trouble, dobe?"

"Damnit, I'm not a dobe! And it's not as if you could do any better!"

"Oh, really?"

Sasuke sauntered over to the blond, his smirk growing with every step. Years ago, while he was still in the academy, Sasuke had encountered a street performer who played an odd instrument called a didgeridoo. The constant flow of air needed to play the instrument should have been impossible for human lungs, and a fascinated Sasuke had immediately demanded lessons in how to breath the way the performer did.

The black-haired boy turned to the kunai, ringed with burnt grass, ran through the hand seals that were half-reflex now, and blew.

And blew.

And blew.

Naruto's jaw sank lower and lower as Sasuke continued his family technique for 30 seconds – a minute – two minutes – and finally ended the flow of fire form his mouth. The kunai was a small lump of melted metal in a circle of bare ground, Sasuke's flames even heating the stones in the soil to a red-hot glow.

For a moment, there was silence. Then Naruto exploded.

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!"

Expression infuriatingly smug, Sasuke shrugged. "Circular breathing, dobe. It isn't hard. I'm sure you could pick up the trick…eventually."

"Eventually?! I'd learn it so fast it would make your head spin, if I wanted! Which I don't!" Somehow, this childish exclamation didn't seem quite sufficient to the blond. "So there!"

Sasuke suppressed the urge to laugh; the situation was so similar to their genin training exercises. Although, Naruto did have a point. "You don't use that technique much anyways, so it isn't really useful to you…dobe."

"Stop calling me that!"

Sasuke ignored him, an idea distracting him. A frown made his brow furrow, as he slowly voiced his thought. "Would it be possible to apply the same idea to other techniques, except use it to re-use chakra instead of breath?"

Naruto, who had been gearing up to rant at his darker teammate, blinked. "Eh?"

"Well, the rasengan uses chakra to push air in opposing directions at high speed. It takes chakra to maintain, right? It's the release of chakra that makes it work. What if you could recapture the chakra as it was being released, and reintegrate it into your chakra system? It would be possible to sustain a technique for indefinite amounts of time."

Naruto stared at him for a long moment. His eyes grew thoughtful, and he collapsed ungracefully into a sitting position on the ground. Sasuke watched him think for a few minutes before growing bored. "I'm going back to central, dobe."

"Mmm." Naruto waved him away absent-mindedly. The dark-haired boy shook his head, half smiling, and turned away.

* * *

Sasuke walked casually into the main building in the complex web of the administrative district. And found chaos. 

People were shouting, papers fell like snow, all the filing cabinets were open. Clustered around the mission assignment desk was a group of loudly arguing jonins. He recognized a few of them: the teacher Orochimaru had assigned him on his arrival, Orimota Toshiro, Ikko was practically bouncing off the walls with tension, and Himoto, who sat behind the missions desk was looking thoroughly harried and ready to kill.

Rolling his eyes at what was fast becoming a familiar scene, Sasuke ignored the shouting jonins and headed directly for Himoto. "What's got them all riled up?" he asked her quietly.

She sighed. "Report came in from one of our field agents. A pair of Akatsuki have been located, and they're all arguing over who will go." She snorted. "As if they're the ones who'll make the choice. Hah!"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "Which two?"

Himoto blinked at the sudden tension in the boy's body. "Um…Deidara and Sasori. They were sighted going west from Suna. Why?"

Sasuke relaxed. Not his brother, then. "Never mind." Raising his voice so that the other jonins could hear him, Sasuke sighed. "Why hasn't anyone called Naruto or Kabuto, then? They both have some experience in dealing with the Akatsuki, so shouldn't they choose the team for the mission?"

There was a sudden, embarrassed silence behind him. Sasuke kept his back to the room, fighting a smirk, as someone shuffled across the room and out the door. He couldn't resist flashing Himoto a quick smile as he continued as though there had been no pause. "Besides, if they want to be useful on a mission against Akatsuki, shouldn't they be doing research on the people they're to fight? Or, at the very least, planning ways around each member's unique abilities?"

Relief and gratitude spread across Himoto's face, as there was a sudden rush for the door. In seconds, most of the jonins were gone, and the room (while still a mess) was quiet. She smiled at Sasuke, and muttered, "I owe you one, brat."

Scowling slightly at the nickname, Sasuke simply nodded. "I finished rewriting the Konoha mission. It's with Ikko now. _Don't_ let him loose it."

Snickering at his expression, the jonin waved him away.

* * *

Naruto frowned, lost in thought. Sasuke's idea…it could be really useful if he could figure out how to do it. He didn't think it would work for the Grand Fireball technique, or any others that consumed the chakra needed to do the technique, but … 

The Rasengan was what Naruto thought of as a contained technique. The chakra that went into the technique was used to power it, and all the 'runoff' chakra was simply wasted. Sasuke's idea would work for techniques like that. But for most fire techniques, there was no 'runoff': the more chakra you put in, the bigger the fire, end of story. That meant that if he tried to reuse chakra from that type of technique, he would just be weakening the effects.

So there were limits to the idea, but still…being able to hold, say, a Big-Ball Rasengan for more than the time it took to use it? That meant he could use it again, and again, without pause, and with no drain on his chakra reserves!

Naruto punched the air, thinking of how awesome that would be, and was surprised to hear something behind him squeak. He twisted his upper body, still sitting on the ground, and came face-to-face with a rather surprised looking girl in a chunin vest.

He blinked.

"Er…hi?"

The girl flushed. "Uhm…T-the missions desk is going to organize the team to go after the first pair of Akatsuki member, and they want you to help them choose who is to go."

"Oh. Guess I'd better get down there then. Aw…I don't feel like walking." He stood, and grinned at the girl. "Wanna go for a ride?"

"What?!"

"C'mon!" Naruto scooped the surprised chunin up, launched himself into the air, and flew. The girl in his arms made that cute little squeaky noise again, the one that reminded him of Hinata back in Konoha. She buried her head in his neck, and he frowned. That wouldn't do, Sound looked so cool from above! He nudged her with an elbow. "Look down!"

She obeyed tentatively. "Wow!"

He laughed, and spent the rest of the short flight pointing out all the neatest landmarks.

For Naruto, it was nothing more than an entertaining way to spend a short but boring trip. But for one Hisagi Mio, it was nothing short of amazing.

She had, of course, heard of the jinchurikki chunin that had joined Sound. Her friends told her his story, and about some of the mission stories they had managed to get Sakura-sempai to tell them, but she didn't believe a word of it. He was probably just another one of those boys who exaggerated everything to make themselves look good. So, when a jonin had wandered over to her and some of the other off-duty chunins and asked for someone to take a message to Uzumaki Naruto, she was the only one who didn't jump at the chance.

Which, in retrospect, was probably why he had chosen her.

When she'd found the boy everyone was talking about, he'd been deep in thought, and clearly off guard. In a bought of mean-spiritedness, she had decided to give the boy a scare, maybe deflate his ego and prove he wasn't all that great after all. She'd snuck up on him, and he'd shown no signs of noticing her presence, yet just as she was about to grab the blond-haired boy, his fist had shot up and nearly hit her in the face!

She'd let out an involuntary squeak and backpedaled several steps. When he turned around, Mio found herself looking into mismatched blue and purple eyes. Their mischievous twinkle had pinned her to the spot, and she's delivered her message in a daze. Clearly, there was some truth to the hype after all, she'd thought dazedly.

Then Uzumaki Naruto had asked her to 'go for a ride' and all respect for the boy had been wiped away by fury. But, instead of trying to jump her bones, the boy had scooped her up and she was flying! It was impossible to fly! Everyone knew it was impossible to fly using chakra!

Apparently, Uzumaki Naruto didn't let that stop him.

As Hisagi Mio looked down on the Hidden Village of Sound, she smiled. She had found her hero.

* * *

Naruto settled easily just outside the door to the missions room, and set down the chunin in his arms. "Er, I just realized I don't know your name." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. 

"I-it's Hisagi Mio, Naruto-san."

He laughed. "None of that '-san' stuff for me, Mio-chan. I'm just Naruto! See ya later!"

He made his way into the missions room, leaving a heavily blushing girl behind. The room was surprisingly calm, with the jonins who wanted the mission (in other words, every jonin in Sound) sitting or standing around the perimeter of the room with Himoto at her desk in the middle along with Kabuto, Sasuke, and Sakura.

"Yo!" Naruto exclaimed cheerfully as he marched straight for the desk. Himoto looked up and grinned at him.

"Naruto, good! Now we can get things underway." As Naruto went to stand with Sakura and Sasuke, Himoto moved to the center of the room. "Alright, I've collected and sorted all the information and ideas you jonin have submitted, and now I'm going to read it all out. Team Seven, Kabuto, feel free to add your opinion as we go."

She took a deep breath. "Right. So far, the Akatsuki has captured four jinchurikki: three-tails, which had no container was taken a week ago; five-tails, whose container was Yuu Misao, age five, was taken three days ago; two-tails, whose container was the Kumo-nin Nii Yugito; and the six-tails, container unknown, was taken a little over a year ago."

"As I'm sure you've concluded, they have stepped up their activity substantially in the last little while, though we don't know why. The Akatsuki pair we've located are a former Stone nin by the name of Deidara whose main weapon seems to be his 'art'. He has a mouth in the middle of his palm, which he feeds special explosive clay. The mouth spits the clay out in whatever form Deidara wants. He had been known to form giant birds of the stuff and escape on their backs. Did I mention the fact that his statues are animate?"

"His partner is a former Suna nin by the name of Sasori. Where we don't know much about Deidara's past, our allies in the Sand were quite willing to share Sasori's past. He's a puppeteer, and his puppets were all once human. He grew up in Sand, obviously, with his parents and grandmother. His parents died, and he made their bodies into puppets, then left Suna. The grandmother is still alive. All his puppets have some form of poison, all of them can move faster than most ninja, and Sasori's body is encased in a puppet as well. Geez, I'm half-glad I'm stuck doing paperwork this week. Good luck killing _these_ guys."

For a moment, there was silence. Then Kabuto spoke up. "I can't tell you much about Deidara, but there are weaknesses in Sasori's protections I do know about. Before Orochimaru-sama broke his hold over me, I was Sasori's spy within Sound."

There was a startled silence at this revelation, but Kabuto continued quickly. "There were weak spots in his protective puppet where any sort of blade or poison came out. The joints of all his puppets are extremely strong, so sticking kunai through them won't work. If you can get sand or small pebbles in the joints it'll slow them down a bit. Don't know what you'll do about actually killing him, and I can't help you with Deidara at all."

Naruto snorted. "C'mon, it's simple, somebody engages whatever clay thingies he makes, someone else gets in close and distracts him with taijutsu, and someone with good stealth gets behind him and drops an explosive note in his supply of clay. It's an explosive, isn't it? We get the hell out of there and Deidara goes boom."

"Boom?" Sakura's voice was chocked with something hovering between amusement and the knowledge of exactly what the 'boom' would do to Deidara's body.

"Boom." Naruto turned to look her straight in the eye. "They hunt jinchurikki down and tear the demon from his or her body. It takes hours for a jinchurikki to die normally, what do you want to bet that the ritual they use makes it take longer? Think about it – once a demon is sealed inside something with a soul, it's like a parasite. It holds onto the soul while the Akatsuki tries to pull it off. I'm not gonna feel any guilt for killing these guys in the most painful ways possible. I won't go outta my way just to cause'em pain, but I won't avoid it either."

He turned back to face the jonins, leaving Sakura to her thoughts, and clapped once. "Right. I'm thinking four-man teams for each guy. People who're good with big attack jutsus, west corner, people with good stealth, east corner – Himoto, show'em my stealth technique – people who're fast, north corner, and anybody who doesn't quite fit anywhere else, south corner."

There was a general shuffle and the jonins talked quietly and moved to their corners. Naruto. Deep in conversation with Kabuto and Himoto, missed the whispers. His teammates did not.

"Kabuto was a spy? Can we really have him as our leader, then?"

"Don't know, but does it matter? The vote is in!"

"Well, I want to change mine, the kid's a good leader, and you know how strong he is!"

"Yeah, but he's so young – what do you two think?"

"I think the vote should be recast – you heard Ikko raving about the kid's amazing stealth technique and he's teaching it to a quarter of us jonins, no questions asked!"

"Suppose if we do get him as Otokage, we're gonna have to top calling him 'kid', hm?"

Sasuke ignored the rest of the conversation and the ones just like it all around the room, and smirked at Sakura. The dobe was totally unaware of the allies his openness and utterly deceptive nature gained him. Sakura noticed his expression and smirked back.

It would be fun to see their dobe's face when he was declared Otokage.

* * *

So…only a week late. Ehehehe, no real excuse. Oh well, here it is. Sasuke is taking a more active role, though Sakura did kind of fade to the background for this chapter. Next chapter – Naruto kicks ass, the Sound is invited to the Chunin exams in Suna, which sparks my favorite part of this story: Naruto the Otokage vs. Tsunade the Hokage in the ring of intervillage polotics! 

If I say any more, I'll give it away. Bwahahaha. -Heliotropic


	15. Chapter 14

In Which:

Suna sends an invitation – Naruto is made Otokage– There is a ninja-like plan –Tsunade gets a surprise.

* * *

_To the Village Hidden In Sound_

_We, the Kazekage of Suna, Invite the Otokage of Sound and those Sound ninjas eligible to participate, to the Chunin Exams to be hosted within our Village._

_As it has come to the attention of the other Hidden Villages that the former Otokage is now deceased and with him all his intervillage policies, the Chunin exams will also act as a medium for peaceful talks between the present Otokage and his/her counterparts from the other Hidden Villages._

_The Exams will begin in five days time. The Village of Suna and its Kazekage formally request that all ninjas of the Village Hidden in Sound be clearly identified, as no latecomers will be allowed into Suna._

_Signed,_

_Sabuka No Gaara_

_Kazekage of Suna_

* * *

Sitting in Himoto's place behind the missions desk, Naruto read the invitation over once. Twice. Three times. Then he buried his head in his hands. "Give me a break! We've got the Konoha mission to do, a pair of Akatsuki to capture, and now we're going to the chunin exams in a week?! We haven't even _got_ an Otokage!" 

Once again, many of the jonins of Sound were gathered in the missions room, many of them chuckling quietly at the blonde's exclamation. This was the last meeting they were to have before going on the Akatsuki mission, but they'd barely even started when a panting messenger had delivered the invitation.

Naruto scowled at the invitation in front of him, and pulled a piece of blank paper towards him. "Right. Here's what we'll do. Since it's clear I can't go on the Konoha mission, I'm putting Sakura-chan in charge, all other parameters the same, but no meeting with anyone from the village while you're there since I want Team Seven in the chunin exams – I know that Orochimaru promoted us, but I'd rather it be a title we earned."

He frowned, tapping his pen against his chin. "We'll have to leave for the Akatsuki mission in no less than a day, it's still early and it should only take about five hours' hard travel to reach their position…."

Himoto smirked to herself. "Don't worry, Naruto. We do, in fact have an Otokage."

"Mmm?"

"He's rather young, so he will have four advisors to help him lead, two from the village and two from the ninjas."

"Mmm."

"Congratulations, Naruto. You are now the Otokage."

"Mmm…"

There was silence for a moment, and Himoto looked rather disappointed. Abruptly, a small furrow appeared in Naruto's brow. Sakura saw it and grinned, counting down under her breath. "Three…two…one…"

Naruto's head snapped up. "I'M THE OTOKAGE?! _ARE YOU PEOPLE INSANE?!?!"_

"Yes." Sasuke replied bluntly. "We voted, and the result was overwhelmingly in your favor."

"B-but I can't be Otokage!"

One of the joins leaning against the wall laughed. "C'mon, kid, I think you'll make a fine leader."

"No, you don't get it! You may accept that I'm a jinchurikki, but it'll count against all of Sound once the other villages find out! And Hokage's law or not, they will find out! And I want to enter the chunin exams! The Otokage can't enter!"

The jonin frowned, as did Sasuke and Sakura. Abruptly, Himoto chuckled. "Both problems can be fixed easily enough. Disguise Corps has just come up with a type of undetectable transformation jutsu – a true transformation, not a genjutsu - and with your monster stamina, I bet you could sustain both it and Orimota's Bushin in your own form."

Now it was Naruto's turn to frown. "So…the Otokage will be me in disguise and a bushin will enter the exam? But even my kage bushin poof into smoke if you hit one, and there's no way I'll avoid being hit for the whole exam!"

Himoto grinned at him once again. "Orimota's Bushin are different. They take forever to make – you have to buy your own weight in meat and bone meal, and it takes seven or eight people to provide the chakra so you don't exhaust yourself, but the result is a bushin that is an exact replica of you: thoughts, techniques, chakra system, everything. The bushin isn't a bushin – as long as you sustain it, it is you!"

Naruto blinked, then matched Himoto's grin. "That's awesome! Right, so that's all good. As soon as the teams are back from the Akatsuki mission, we'll get Sakura's team to heal us, and then you and I will troop down to Disguise Corps headquarters and get me all transformed and I can figure out what kinda personality the Otokage is going to have. Then we'll make this bushin and I'll figure out how to give it access to Kyuubi's chakra."

Just like that, Naruto was all business. "Himoto, before you start the Konoha mission, I want you to make me a list of genin teams that want to go to the chunin exams. Star the ones you and the senseis think are ready and leave it with Kabuto at the hospital. Once that's done, you plus Sasuke, Sakura, and Ikko will start the Konoha mission – and end it. This doesn't have to be a complete overhaul of our image in Konoha's files, only make enough changes to create some doubt about our 'evilness'. I want you back in two days maximum."

Naruto jumped up out of his seat, and clapped his hands. "Right! Off you guys go! Jonins for the Akatsuki hunt front and center. Form up into your groups and talk out your group plans, decide who's doing what and all that. I want as little talk as possible, so decide on a set of silent commands too. Get going, people, we move out at dawn!"

* * *

Kabuto sighed, signing his name on a request for extra bandages, and set the finished paperwork on the pitifully small stack in his 'out' box. He was undeniably one of the best medics in the shinobi world, but no one told you about the paperwork when you became a Medic nin. It was _so_ boring. 

"I'M THE OTOKAGE?! _ARE YOU PEOPLE INSANE?!'_

Naruto's voice came clearly through the walls, making everyone jump. The hospital administration building was right next to the core administration building, and the walls were thin enough that the blonde's incredulous exclamation sounded almost like he was in the same room.

There were some quiet chuckles as everyone settled again, but several people glanced nervously in his direction. Kabuto went back to his work, smirking. If they thought he had been unaware of their little vote, they were stupid. He'd let out the information about his spying on purpose, to destabilize the results.

Because if people thought that he would willingly lead a dysfunctional village of former missing nins, they weren't just stupid, they were crazy.

* * *

The Akatsuki hunt left the next day. All the jonins had been equipped with Naruto's no -colour cloths, a clear understanding of the plan they had worked out, and a rather unique set of explosive notes. The notes were triggered by sound – in particular, they were triggered by a combination of the user's voice and a specific word. As soon as the trigger word was spoken, they exploded, but not even an application of the Kyuubi's chakra could make it explode without that word. 

The jonins thought they were ingenious, allowing for simultaneous explosions and concentrated firepower without being within the blast range.

Naruto just thought they looked cool.

As soon as they were all organized, the group split into four groups of two, each group set to approach Deidara and Sasori from a different angle, all using Naruto's stealth technique. They coordinated their movements carefully, using some altered communication pendants to keep track of each other. If all went well, they would attack simultaneously. The two Akatsuki members wouldn't know what hit them.

Almost five hours of steady travel later, the teams were in position. The camp was in a secluded clearing deep in the forest and far from any village. Strategically, the two Akatsuki members had chosen a good spot: it had the benefit of nearby running water, was close to a small underground cave system, and with the benefit of knowing their surroundings better than any hunters would, the two could easily force any attackers into places where mobility was limited.

_With_ the benefit of superior knowledge of their surroundings.

The first thing the Sound nins had done upon locating the camp was to spend almost three hours exploring the area and concealing the explosive notes, not to mention setting up traps and making small cachets of weaponry and medical supplies.

It was just after midnight when the Sound nins, still using Naruto's stealth technique, made their first strike.

They didn't fight the two Akatsuki. Naruto had insisted that there be the least amount of direct fighting possible, stating in no uncertain terms that Sound could not afford to lose jonin simply through ill-planned revenge.

Instead, the blond Otokage went about it a different way. The _ninja_ way.

* * *

Naruto crouched at the edge of the clearing, watching the two move around the camp. The blond – Deidara – used clay 'sculptures' that could explode on command to attack opponents. With his bird statues, he also had the benefit of staying out of easy attack range. At the far end of the camp, two great clay birds towered, inanimate. 

They were the first of the team's targets.

Naruto moved the kunai in his hand to rest against his communication pendant and tapped it twice. Almost two minutes later, both the Akatsuki members raised their heads and looked north. Sasori chuckled.

"Well, well. A spy approached."

In the firelight, Deidara's bright grin looked vaguely intimidating. "Feel like playing ignorant, Sasori-danna?"

The head of the odd puppet that housed Sasori's body nodded. "I believe that would be wise. It is interesting that they have managed to find us, rather than the bushins Leader-sama usually has us use. Blind luck or design?"

Smirking, Deidara settled back into a comfortable sitting position. "Suppose we'll find out soon enough. Let our little spy look all he wants, it's entertaining to see their faces when they realize we've just been playing!"

Once again Sasori nodded, and the two settled quickly into a debate on…the meaning of art?

Naruto frowned, tucking the conversation into the back of his head for later examination. Finally, he could fee the chakra signature of the sound jonin the two Akatsuki had sensed. The jonin wasn't using Naruto's stealth technique; instead he was under a more traditional set of interwoven genjutsus designed to divert attention away from the user. It was part of the plan – the jonin was a decoy to attract the pair's attention.

Slowly, ever so slowly, Naruto inched around the edge of the clearing towards the two inert sculptures. His technique insured that even if the pair somehow sensed him they would immediately assume that he was unimportant – an animal, the remnants of a recent jutsu, nothing important. Naruto refused to risk it. Better to be safe than sorry, after all.

It took him three minutes to circle the clearing as his decoy jonin moved around the camp high in the surrounding trees. Directly behind the two clay statues, the blond inched forward until he could duck between them, out of sight should one of the pair manage to pierce his stealth technique.

Naruto slipped two bundles of exploding notes from inside his loose jacket. Carefully, he scraped a small hole under the first bird's wing. He rolled up the exploding notes as tight as he could and stuffed them into the hole, packing the clay over the bundle and smoothing it out again. One down. Turning, he did the same to the other, then carefully and quietly slid the wings back into position.

Then he shuffled backwards to the edge of the clearing and concealed himself in among the foliage. The blond surveyed the clearing, noting the positions of the Akatsuki pair and their weapons, then lifted his kunai and tapped his pendant three times. Time for step two.

The jonin acting as a decoy immediately reactivated Naruto's stealth technique and disappeared from Deidara and Sasori's senses. The two sat up straight and stopped arguing immediately, surprised. Both scanned the trees, searching for the jonin. While they focused on their surroundings, Naruto noticed a particularly uninteresting part of the clearing right behind Sasori. There really was nothing of interest there; he should look to other parts of the clearing.

The blond Otokage grinned.

The second jonin was in position behind the puppet user. Really, it was amazing how quickly the jonins had taken to his stealth technique. He couldn't help but puff out his chest a bit, proud. These people were _his_ people, and they kicked ass!

Moving swiftly, Naruto circled the camp once again, high in the trees, to where two other jonin were waiting. Soon after, they were joined by a fourth. In silence they waited for the signal that would tell them that the others were done tangling the chakra network that allowed Sasori to control his puppets so perfectly.

They didn't have to wait long.

A flash of reflected light from a mirror on the opposite side of the clearing, and they attacked.

He launched himself off the branch, using the momentum to literally fly towards Deidara, who shouted in surprise at their sudden appearance.

He lunged at the blond, vaguely aware of four of his jonins attacking Sasori to his left as the rest circled Deidara. Said blond narrowed his eyes at Naruto, his one visible eye sharp.

Parrying a strong blow from the Otokage, the other abruptly lashed out, catching Naruto a glancing blow across the cheek that sent him back a pace. Deidara launched himself upwards, snarling, and even as he and the jonins followed, Naruto was aware that they were heading straight for the two clay birds.

Behind him, Sasori was growling, enraged, as the puppets he had summoned moved jerkily in uncoordinated circles thanks to the utter mess that had been made of the chakra systems. He, too, leapt upwards and back, beside Deidara now, and both mounted the clay birds.

There was a momentary glow of chakra, and Naruto saw the mouth in Deidara's hand chewing busily, and the great sculptures came alive. Two quick beats of those wide wings produced a downdraft that knocked Naruto off his feet and the birds were in the air.

Naruto grinned, ready to speak the activation word for the concealed explosive notes.

Then he noticed one of his jonins slung over the back of one of the birds, and the plan went to hell.

* * *

Tsunade glared death at the massive piles of paperwork on her desk. Why oh why had she let the brat convince her to become Hokage? And then the stupid brat up and leaves, joining an enemy village out of loyalty to a teammate! She could understand that, but really, the reckless stupid brat could have at least warned her before he conned her into leading the damn village. Tsunade upped the intensity of her glare, ignoring the quiet snicker from her ANBU guard. 

Goddamned paperwork. She bet _Orochimaru_ never had to do the tedious stuff.

"Glaring at your work will not make it go away, Tsunade-sama."

The frustrated blond transferred her glare to Shizune, thoroughly annoyed.

"Come now, Tsunade-sama, you need to finish. With our trip to Suna for the chunin exams so near, this needs to be out of the way. Besides, those reports could give us some clues about the new Otokage." Shizune blinked as Tsunade choked on air.

"_There's a new Otokage? WHAT HAPPENED!?"_

Shizune sighed. "Tsunade-sama…just read the reports."

* * *

Argh! I can't believe how late this is, but…well, life kinda got away from be. Oh well. I think it's safe to say that updates will be coming once a month now, two weeks if I'm really lucky and have lots of free time. And I couldn't fit the Tsunade vs. Naruto-as-Otokage in ! 

On the upside, while I was supposed to be writing Traid, I found a beta, the talented Computerfreak101, who promptly inspired a two-shot tthe first half of which is posted, called **Operation P**. Go read it, it's good fun. –Heliotropic


End file.
